Biology subjects

Crubezy, E.

Publications and source records attributed to Crubezy, E..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Geometric morphometric analysis of facial sexual dimorphism in a contemporary sample : An application to sex prediction of ancient human remains

Focusing on craniofacial bones, this study investigates morphological variation related to sexual dimorphism in order to deepen our understanding of human biological diversity and to provide new data from a contemporary reference sample. Accordingly, the research was guided by three objectives (i) identify the facial regions exhibiting the greatest sexual dimorphism using landmark-based geometric morphometric method; (ii) evaluate the reliability of discriminant models based on these dimorphic regions; and (iii) conduct exploratory analyses to assign sex classification probabilities to ancient subjects using the discriminant models derived from a contemporary reference sample. The reference sample comprised 44 skulls from subjects of known sex who died in 2024. The ancient sample included 4 skulls recovered from the Grotte de La Medecine (France), attributed to the chalcolithic period. Fourteen facial landmarks were digitized using 3DSlicer. Generalized Procrustes Analysis was performed to extract shape variables and standardized coordinates for statistical analysis. Thin -Plate Spline transformations quantified and visualized deformation amplitudes between the female and male shapes. Landmarks in the orbital showed the highest deformation amplitudes. Goodall F-test comparing male and female shapes across three facial regions revealed significant sexual dimorphism only in the orbital region and the global facial shape. Discriminant analysis demonstrated that the orbital region provided the highest classification accuracy (88.6%) compared to the global facial region (72.7%). The discriminant models yielded high probabilities of male and female sex classification for the ancient subjects. Using a reproducible method, comparable levels of accuracy to those reported in the scientific literature were achieved despite a relatively modest sample size. These findings further confirm the significant role of the orbital region in human craniofacial sexual dimorphism.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

The last battle of Anne of Brittany: solving mass grave through an interdisciplinary approach (paleopathology, anthropobiology, history, multiple isotopes and radiocarbon dating)

Mass graves are usually key historical markers with strong incentive for archeological investigations. The identification of individuals buried in mass graves has long benefitted from traditional historical, archaeological, anthropological and paleopathological techniques. The addition of novel methods including genetic, genomic and isotopic geochemistry have renewed interest in solving unidentified mass graves. In this study, we demonstrate that the combined use of these techniques allows the identification of the individuals found in two Breton historical mass graves, where one method alone would not have revealed the importance of this discovery. The skeletons likely belong to soldiers from the two enemy armies who fought during a major event of Breton history: the siege of Rennes in 1491, which ended by the wedding of the Duchess of Brittany with the King of France and signaled the end of the independence of the region. Our study highlights the value of interdisciplinary approaches with a particular emphasis on increasingly accurate isotopic markers. The development of the sulfur isoscape and testing of the triple isotope geographic assignment are detailed in a companion paper [1].

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Relationships between clans and genetic kin explain cultural similarities over vast distances: the case of Yakutia

Archaeological studies sample ancient human populations one site at a time, often limited to a fraction of the regions and periods occupied by a given group. While this bias is known and discussed in the literature, few model populations span areas as large and unforgiving as the Yakuts of Eastern Siberia. We systematically surveyed 31,000 square kilometres in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and completed the archaeological study of 174 frozen graves, assembled between the 15th and the 19th century. We analysed genetic data (autosomal genotypes, Y-chromosome haplotypes and mitochondrial haplotypes) for all ancient subjects and confronted these to data on 190 modern subjects from the same area and the same population. Ancient familial links were identified between graves up to 1500 km apart, as well as paternal clans. We provide new insights on the origins of the contemporary Yakut population and demonstrate that cultural similarities in the past were linked to (i) the expansion of specific paternal clans, (ii) preferential marriage among the elites and (iii) funeral choices that could constitute a bias in any ancient population study.

genetics↗