How Tall?

The excavation team wants to know your estimate of how tall this person was when alive. By studying the bones of many people of known height, scientists have developed formulas for estimating height based on the lengths of certain bones.

The femur is the bone found in a person’s thigh. Scientists have studied many individual skeletons and have devised formulas that estimate how tall a person was when alive. There are different formulas for people from different areas of the world and different formulas for the two sexes. The femur in the activity is measured and found to be 43cm in length.

Dr Mulhern says, "I measured the femur as 43 cm in length. Based on the length of the femur, I believe that, if this person was a man, he was between 157.14 and 165.02 cm tall when alive. If this person was female, she was between 154.29 and 161.21 cm tall when alive. To figure out how many inches tall that is, divide by 2.54".

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