Abstract
Entheseal changes and bone cross-sectional properties are used as skeletal activity markers for different animal species, although most studies are targeted on humans. While there is compelling evidence on the association between activity and bone cross-sectional properties, studies on association of entheseal changes to activity have presented more contradictory results. In previous research, covariation between entheseal changes and bone cross-sectional properties is considered a possible result of common underlying factor. However, these studies are performed predominantly on human material. We provide beyond-species scope by studying this covariation in reindeer skeleton. The results will provide platform for discussing bone functional adaptation pathway in which activity modifies entheseal appearance. The material are wild forest reindeer, domesticated free-ranging reindeer and zoo reindeer of Northern and North-East Finland. We found that bone formation in most studied entheses (25 out of 27) were associated with increased values in bone cross-sectional properties and proxies of bone/body size. Features of bone resorption, when significant, were also associated with increased values in bone cross-sectional properties and bone/body size. We conclude that as entheseal changes were associated with bone cross-sectional properties and bone/body size, the observed variation at reindeer entheses likely reflects skeletal robusticity. While causal factors resulting in association between skeletal robusticity and entheseal appearance cannot be evidenced, bone functional adaptation can be hypothesized as at least a partial contributing mechanism to entheseal appearance.
Highlights
In this paper we study this as sociation between bone formation in reindeer skeleton based on meth odology presented in Niinimaki and Salmi (2016) and bone resorption, observations based on methodology presented in Henderson et al (2010) and Henderson et al (2013) for human entheses
For some entheses when association was significant, bone formation and some of the features of bone resorption were associated with increased values in bone cross-sectional properties and increased body size
We examined changes at reindeer entheses in relation with bone cross-sectional properties, and in relation with body size
Summary
Physical activity reconstruction through skeletal changes such as changes in muscle attachment sites (entheses) and bone cross-section properties hold great potential for the analysis of past everyday life, subsistence activities and identities in human osteology (e.g., Hawkey and Merbs, 1995; Churchill and Morris, 1998; Molnar, 2006, 2010; Jurmain et al, 2012). Entheseal changes – called musculoskeletal stress markers – were originally considered to reflect stress directed to bones via muscle use in intensive physical activity (Hawkey and Merbs, 1995) by means of changes in bone robusticity and stress lesions at an enthesis. This was based on the observation that there were substantial differences in the manifestation of entheses and ligament attachment of the upper limb between human populations of different subsistence strategies (Hawkey and Merbs, 1995). There was further confusion with applica tion of the method when stress lesions were not considered separately but as a continuum to bone robusticity (stress beyond robusticity), or
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