Estimation of body mass in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) using cross-sectional geometry of the metapodial

Abstract

Zooarchaeologists have developed and used several techniques for estimating the body mass of individual prey animals. Many of these are based on skeletal variables such as minimum number of individuals, weight of remains, or linear dimensions of long bone articular ends. All of these techniques fail to account for individual variability in body mass across the lifespan driven by the primary productivity of the landscape, sex, ontogeny, and season of individual death. Because skeletons are weight-bearing, they constantly remodel in response to changes in body mass, making long bone cross-sectional properties an ideal metric for predicting body mass. Cross-sectional geometric properties of distal limb bones and body mass of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were measured in a sample of 64 recently harvested individuals. Best-fit regressions between cross-sectional skeletal dimensions and dressed body weight produce higher R-squared values and lower standard errors of the estimate than regressions between dressed body weight and linear dimensions of long bone articular ends. Cross-sectional geometry can provide new useful line of evidence for estimating body mass of prey animals, when available.