Immature Human Skeletal Remains from Homol'ovi III

ABSTRACT

The well-preserved immature skeletons of three individuals, aged at about five and one-half fetal months, nine and one-half fetal months, and one year, are examined. The youngest was delivered to the Human Identification Laboratory in its surrounding matrix, thus enabling precise identification of individual bones. This fact takes on added importance because vertebral anomalies are present. These anomalies, fusions of adjacent neural hemi-arches, are also exhibited by the individual aged at nine and one-half fetal months. Additional abnormalities in two ribs of this infant indicate the possibility of Klippel-Feil Syndrome, an inherited cervical spine disorder. The one-year-old infant has a marked facial asymmetry, another manifestation of this syndrome, thus suggesting a genetic link among all three individuals. Finally, cribra orbitalia, which could have been caused by an iron-deficiency anemia, may be evident in the one-year-old child.