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Suggested answers for
case study 5
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Statistical description of the variates
The negative skewness of variates such as SKULL and SKULW show
that we have an overweight of large specimens, either because
of higher mortality for old individuals or because of taphonomy
(this can also be investigated using histograms and survivorship
curves).
Correlation between the variates is generally high, except for
UTLEN versus PARW and FRONW.
Allometric growth
Many of the pairs of variates indicate isometric growth, but
isometric growth of SKULL versus UTWID can be rejected at
very high significance. With increased age, UTWID seems to
increase more slowly than the length of the skull.
There seems to be no significant allometry involved in
SKULL vs. FRONW and PARW.