Craniometrics

Craniometry is the measurement of the human dry skull. It ables anthropologists to examine the differences between species, investigate variation within species, study sexual dimorphism, and geographical and ethnic differences. It also used in the field of forensics and clinical diagnosis.

There are different material that are used to measure the skulls:

- The sliding caliper is used for measurements in the facial región and on the mandible.

- The hinge caliper is used to measure the external size of the skull.

- The stadiometer and osteometric board are used to measure the height of the skull. The stadiometer is formed by a ruler and a sliding horizontal headpiece that can be adjusted to rest on the top of the head. The osteometric board is composed of a fixed heapiece and a sliding footpiece.

- The head spanner or Todd's craniostat is used for measuring the height of the head above the earlobes.

Also, soft metric tape and coordinate calipers are used too.

- Some other tools that are necessary: digitizers, surface scanners and computer assisted imaging and measuring devices (CT scan, MRI, sonography, etc.).

Craniometric points are landmarks or points of origin on the skull from which measurements can be taken.

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More information can be found at:

Yuan, M.S. (2003) Craniometry and Functional Craniology. Columbia University. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/medical/humanAnatomy/yuan/craniologyISlides.pdf#targetText=Bregma%3A%20the%20intersection%20of%20the,the%20measure%20of%20facial%20height.

Anthropologic landmarks of the skull measurements and indices (2010). https://forensicmd.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/anthropologic-landmarks-skull.pdf