Brief communication: Bone remodeling rates in Pleistocene humans are not slower than the rates observed in modern populations: A reexamination of Abbott et al. (1996)

Abstract

Bone histomorphometry has been applied to the lower limb cortical bone of Pleistocene humans to establish age at death and to determine bone remodeling rates (Abbott et al.: Am J Phys Anthropol 226 (1996) 307–313). Both of these procedures require the determination of osteon density and mean osteon size. Previous analyses of Middle and Late Pleistocene human lower limb bones have produced bone remodeling rates that are slower than those determined in a more recent archeological sample. Recalculation of the data reported in Abbott et al.: Am J Phys Anthropol 226 (1996) 307–313) has revealed mathematical errors in the remodeling rates reported for the Pleistocene humans. The corrected remodeling rates for the Pleistocene group are similar to the values obtained in the more recent comparative sample. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.