84(O46) Human limb bone characteristics in northeast Asian and Japanese populations

We presented new metric data and features of human limb bones from the northeastern Asia. The northeastern samples had a hypercnemic index value of the femur and a flat subtrochanteric shape, but a lower pilaster index value instead. The maximum subtrochanteric diameter and the platymeric index (F10':F9') were only correlated significantly with the latitudes. That is, the northern Asians have a wide and flat subtrochanteric shape of the femur. The PCA based on the 12 metric variables showed that the 1st PC represented overall limb bone dimensions. The 2nd PC can be interpreted as representing the relative size of general shaft diameters against longitudinal lengths, maximum subtrochanteric and mid femoral shaft diameters, thus resulting that the 2nd PC was strongly correlated with the latitudes. The estimated Fst (h2=0.7-0.5) of 0.3033-0.3785 shows that the limb bone measurements across regions is rather large, which is approximately twice or three times than the low levels of interregional variation in analyses of cranial and dental data. These novel multivariate analyses reconfirmed that the limb bone morphology is more subject to selection by climatic, nutritional and other environmental factors.