Histomorphometric, fractal and lacunarity comparative analysis of sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus) and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) compact bone samples

Abstract

Quantitative and qualitative studies dealing with histomorphometry of the bonetissue play a new role in modern legal medicine/forensic medicine and archaeozoologynowadays. This study deals with the differences found in case of humerusand metapodial bones of recent sheep (Ovis aries), goat (Capra hircus) and roedeer (Capreolus capreolus) specimens, both from a qualitative point of view, butmainly from a quantitative perspective. A novel perspective given by the fractalanalysis performed on the digital histological images is approached. This studyshows that the qualitative assessment may not be a reliable one due to theclose resemblance of the structures. From the quantitative perspective (severalmeasurements performed on osteonal units and statistical processing of data),some of the elements measured show significant differences among 3 species(the primary osteonal diameter, etc.). The fractal analysis and the lacunarity ofthe images show a great deal of potential, proving that this type of analysis canbe of great help in the separation of the material from this perspective.