Kelly R Kamnikar

University of New Mexico | UNM · Department of Anthropology

La osteología virtual ha aumentado las capacidades de los antropólogos forenses para mejorar la metodología y establecer nuevas técnicas con fines de identificación. En esta presentación, ofrecemos un ejemplo de investigación para un grupo subrepresentado en los EE. UU., los indígenas americanos (IA). Los métodos utilizados son basados en coleccion...

Objectives: With the increased use of 3D-generated images in biological research, there is a critical need to adapt classical anatomical measurements, traditionally conducted with calipers, to a virtual environment. We present detailed protocols for measuring bicondylar length, a critical dimension of the femur, using three dif­ferent imaging softw...

Stature estimation is a core component to the biological profile in forensic anthropology casework. Here we provide mathematical equations for estimating stature for contemporary American Indians (AI), which currently are lacking in forensic anthropology. Drawing on postmortem computed tomography data from the New Mexico Decedent Image Database we...

Steve Ousley was our friend, colleague, and collaborator. This article reflects on the impact of his work in modernizing three-dimensional cranial data collection. By building the 3Skull software program, something he is less well known for than FORDISC, he allowed generations of researchers to collect cranial and other skeletal coordinate data in...

Data from contemporary American Indians (AI) are rare in reference samples used in forensic anthropology. The absence of these data is not surprising given the history of exploitation by anthropologists. These data are necessary in contexts where AI comprise a large part of the population and can become part of the forensic record, like New Mexico....

Stature estimation is a core component of the biological profile in forensic anthropology casework. Estimates using a mathematical framework are derived from equations that use single or multiple long bone lengths in combination with prediction intervals to create a stature range. We provide mathematical equations for estimating stature for modern...

Population affinity explores the biocultural impacts on the human skeletal system using morphological variations to estimate the concordance between an individual and various reference populations. Due to the impact of the environment, geographic boundaries, cultural practices, gene flow, and structural racism (e.g., legal, societal, health care, p...

Research on craniofacial variation requires reference datasets. Modern reference datasets from the recently deceased (i.e., forensic cases) or living populations are especially pertinent to forensic anthropological research and analysis. Reference datasets often form the backbone of analytical tools used to calculate population affinity estimates f...

The biological profile is fundamental to the work of forensic anthropologists. This includes estimation methods for sex, age, ancestry, and stature, developed by comparing information from unknown humans remains to data from known reference samples. Unfortunately, for some groups, reference samples are small or temporally inappropriate, making thei...

After attending this presentation, attendees will be familiar with stature estimation equations for modern Native Americans (NA) derived from current forensic casework. This presentation will impact the forensic science community by providing updated stature estimation equations for NA calculated from Computed Tomography (CT) scans collected in rou...

This presentation will describe stakeholder relationships encountered by forensic anthropologists during the Georgian Recovery, Documentation, and Identification Project (GRDIP). This presentation will impact the forensic science community by describing additional responsibilities and encounters with non-forensic stakeholders involved in humanitari...

This report describes the differential diagnosis of osseous growths in the first metatarsals of an adult male previously unreported in the literature. Examination of the remains via macroscopic analysis and conventional radiography identified unusual bilateral growths arising from the lateral aspects of the first metatarsals with growth directed to...

Cranial landmarks have been used in research and casework since the late 19th century, at which time some of the earliest landmark and measurement definitions were codified. Over the last two to three decades, however, many biological anthropologists have shifted from taking traditional caliper-derived measurements to using a three-dimensional (3D)...

The scientific identification of unknown human skeletal remains in forensic contexts relies heavily on the estimation of demographic parameters (i.e., sex, age, stature, and population affinity). Population affinity, or the likelihood of group relatedness to a defined population of a decedent, can be estimated using measurements and observations fr...

Mediante el análisis de rasgos no métricos, la ancestría se puede estimar a partir de restos completos o fragmentados. El método mas utilizado, que se ajusta a las guías de los estándares probatorios, aplica a datos de rasgos macromorfoscópicos (MMS). Estos rasgos se han usado para investigar grupos ancestrales, y se pueden usar para reducir la reg...

Las estimaciones de ancestría suelen basarse en mediciones del cráneo. Los modelos más comunes usan agrupaciones discretas que abarcan poblaciones muy diversas como, por ejemplo, “hispano.” Esta investigación se suma a otras recientes que desafían estas categorías mediante análisis de ancestría más detallados. Examinamos la información craneométric...

This presentation will impact the forensic science community by quantifying the impact of sex and population affinity on age estimation following the Moorrees and colleagues method of dental development within the statistical framework of TA.1 This framework attempts to estimate age based on a multitude of skeletal features, which allow for age est...

Population affinity estimation is frequently assessed from measurements of the cranium. Traditional models place individuals into discrete groups―such as Hispanic―that often encompass very diverse populations. Current research, including this study, challenges these assumptions using more refined population affinity estimation analyses. We examine...

If needed, we have included closed captioning to improve accessibility to this presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/beNuBylj0JY

Forensic anthropologists assist law enforcement agencies and medical examiner's offices with investigations involving human remains, providing insight into trauma analysis, the establishment of postmortem interval, and the estimation of biological profile data. Ancestry is considered one of the more difficult aspects of the biological profile, due...

Bioarchaeologists and paleopathologists have recently turned their attention towards one critical aspect of the study of the history of disease: health‐related caregiving. In response, an approach, the Bioarchaeology of Care (BoC), and within it, the web‐based Index of Care (IoC), have been developed to enable the identification and interpretation...

Dental development is one of the most widely utilized and accurate methods available for estimating age in subadult skeletal remains. The timing of tooth growth and development is regulated by genetics and less affected by external factors, allowing reliable estimates of chronological age. Traditional methodology focuses on comparing tooth developm...

As part of a much larger investigation into the use of macromorphoscopic trait data by forensic anthropologists to estimate ancestry from unidentified skeletal remains, we conducted a fourteen-year (2002-2016) intraobserver error study. Motivated by the development of a large macromorphoscopic database-which will potentially utilize data collected...

As one part of a much larger investigation into the macromorphoscopic traits used in the estimation of ancestry from skeletal remains, we conducted a fourteen year (2002 to 2016) intra-observer error study. Motivated by the development of a large macromorphoscopic database, which could potentially utilize data collected in 2002, quantification of t...

Age estimation, a component of the biological profile, contributes significantly to the creation of a post- mortem profile of an unknown set of human remains, which can aid forensic professionals in linking remains to a missing person’s profile. The goal of this study is twofold: (1) to introduce a new juvenile age estimation technique using CVT; a...

Bioarchaeology is fraught with profound ethical quandaries, yet it has lagged behind the larger discipline of anthropology in the development of ethical principles and a professional code of ethics. Here, we propose an additional ethical justification for bioarchaeology based on relational ethics, theoretical work on embodiment, and the produced an...