Knowledge of human osteology is key for fields such as archaeology, biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, anatomy, and medicine. This six-week course provides an introduction to skeletal anatomy for anthropologists and biologists, and covers the entire human skeleton, with sections on growth, development, and pathology. The skeletal anatomy of select non-human mammals is used to demonstrate the functional morphology of each bone. At the end of this course, students are able to identify individual bones (complete and fragmentary), recognize bone landmarks, describe normal and abnormal growth processes (including common mutations), and assess bones for signs of pathology.

Undergraduate course taught at Vassar College in Spring 2021.