Developmental Juvenile Osteology

Until now there has been no text solely dedicated to the development of the juvenile skeleton. For the first time this book by Louise Scheuer and Sue Black brings together information from the vast and widely dispersed anthropological and medical literature. It is aimed primarily at physical anthropologists, archaeologists and forensic pathologists but should prove of interest to a much wider scientific and clinical readership.

The introductory chapters deal with the basic principles involved in deducing age from juvenile skeletal samples and in the development of bone as a tissue. The main part of the book describes each bone, first in its adult state and then its development from the earliest embryological stage to maturity. The individual sections are fully referenced and profusely illustrated with superb new drawings of bones at successive stages of development.

Each section closes with "Practical Notes", which summarize previous information, describe how to side and distinguish a bone from others of a similar morphology and give detailed metrics from documented sources.

Any scientist interested in human skeletal biology will find this an essential text. It will prove to be invaluable in the laboratory, to identify and age juvenile bones, and in the library, as a basis for further study of any part of the human skeleton.