Bone Profiler

Bone cross-sections show many characteristics that have been used to infer various properties of the individual or taxon from which they were prepared: life history traits (Castanet et al., 1993), locomotor patterns (Casinos, 1996), life style (Laurin et al., 2000), metabolism (Ricql's, 1983) or growth rate (Rimblot-Baly et al., 1995) are some examples.

However, bone microstructure is very complex and few objective, quantitative indices (other than very simple ones, like the cortico-diaphyseal index, or the global compactness) are available to describe bone sections in a way that enables statistical inferences or comparison. The aim of this program is to perform automatically all the complex tasks needed to analyze bone sections. The methods have been published in: Girondot, M., Laurin, M. - 2003 - Bone Profiler: a tool to quantify, model, and statistically compare bone-section compactness profiles. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23:458-461.