132nd Annual Academy Meeting Abstracts March 25, 2017 Page # Anthropology 2 Botany 5 Cell Biology 6 Chemistry 20 Earth Science 49 Ecology 28 Engineering 45 Entomology 40 Environmental Science 47 Micro and Molecular Biology 58 Physics and Astronomy 68 Plant Systematics and Biodiversity 71 Psychology 74 Science Education 75 Zoology 77 1 Anthropology Section An Examination of Midwestern American Indian Female Crania in FORDISC 3.0 with Regard to an Isolated Calotte Found in Indiana Susan Spencer Helfrich, University of Southern Indiana, and Della Collins Cook, Indiana University Isolated crania are a common find in the Midwest and are often broken and incomplete. These fragmentary finds are particularly difficult to identify using traditional forensic techniques. We present on a calotte from Greene County, Indiana, submitted to us as a forensic case. It was missing the face and skull base, allowing for only seven measurements to be entered into FORDISC®3.0 (GOL, XCB, WFB, UFBR, ASB, FRC, PAC). Discrepancies in FORDISC®3.0 results for the Greene County calotte prompted an examination of results for ancient American Indian female crania from the Schild site (AD 700-1250) in west-central Illinois. We learned that (1) ancient Midwestern American Indian females tend to be misclassified in FORDISC®3.0; (2) the likelihood of having a result with a posterior probability above 0.800 increased as the number of measurements entered into FORDISC®3.0 increased; (3) an increased number of measurements entered into FORDISC®3.0 do not guarantee a more accurate result. We propose that the application of FORDISC®3.0 in cases such as the Greene County calotte is unreliable, and should not be used to exclude an ancient American Indian identification. Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis could provide conclusive evidence that the calotte was ancient, but these techniques are expensive and are not always successful due to the degradation of bone collagen and DNA in wet environments. Can dental metrics be used to distinguish between European and Native American individuals? Paige Wojcik, Indiana University Odontometrics have been used to evaluate ancestry, kinship, and sexual dimorphism. Tooth crown size is highly heritable and is therefore frequently used to determine biological distance between individuals within and between populations. On a broad scale, the teeth of Native Americans tend to be larger than those of Europeans. Non-metric dental traits more commonly found in Native American dentitions account for some of this variation in crown size. This study attempts to determine whether the maximum mesiodistal and the maximum buccolingual crown diameters of permanent teeth can be used to distinguish between individuals of Native American and European ancestry in a mixed sample. The sample consists of 40 Native American maxillary and mandibular dental casts (including Navajo, Pima, and Yuma individuals) and 10 maxillary and mandibular dental casts from European individuals. The maximum mesiodistal crown diameters and the maximum buccolingual crown diameters of permanent teeth were measured to the nearest 0.10 mm with Mitutoyo calipers using the technique described in Moorrees (1957) and Moorrees (1964). Each measurement was repeated twice to ensure minimal intra-observer error. The data were randomized and then sorted by the mesiodistal or buccolingual crown diameter of each tooth. Although the European individuals occasionally cluster towards the smaller end of the spectrum when the mesiodistal and buccolingual crown diameters are sorted in size order, the individual dimensions of any given tooth cannot be used to distinguish between individuals of Native American or European descent. European teeth cannot be differentiated from Native American teeth when mesiodistal crown diameter is plotted against buccolingual crown diameter of any given tooth. Analyses of the variation in the Native American dentitions demonstrate the challenges in using odontometrics to evaluate continental ancestry. 2 Anthropology Section Continued….. Elliptical Fourier Analysis of the Human Nasal Aperture Justin R. Maiers, Krista E. Latham, Stephen P. Nawrocki, Jessica Byram, University of Indianapolis, In the analysis of human skeletal remains, the nasal aperture is often used in discrete, non-metric analyses, especially in regards to ancestry assessment. The shape itself is complex, so the final assessment of the shape has traditionally been based largely on the subjective judgment of the observer. This means the final decision of the qualities of that shape are subject to the Gestalt of the observer, and do not necessarily accurately describe actual shape. Elliptical Fourier analysis can transform the complex shape of the nasal aperture into a numeric variable. Once transformed, not only can the complex shape be consistently and precisely recreated, but it can be quickly and easily compared against data from other nasal apertures. A total sample of 840 individuals were sampled for this study. Samples were collected from the Pretoria bone collection in Pretoria, South Africa and the W.M. Bass collection at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN. This study sampled males and females ranging from 18-100, all with known age, sex, and ancestry. Elliptical Fourier analysis was instrumental in quantifying a complex shape, which allowed this study to focus on statistical comparisons instead of qualitative descriptions. Principal component 1 was the strongest contributor to the observable variation at ~84%. The shape was significantly affected by sex, ancestry, continent of origin, and the interaction of ancestry and country of origin. This presentation will explain how those different variables affect the shape of the nasal aperture. How long has tuberculosis (TB) infected humans? Krystiana Krupa, Indiana University The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) consists of several species that cause TB in humans and other organisms, with origin estimations ranging from ~40,000 years ago, coinciding with human migration out of Africa, to a relatively recent ~6,000 years ago. Because TB species have infected humans for thousands of years, they offer insights into the co-evolution of bacteria and their human and animal hosts. The events associated with the peopling of the Americas provide a unique window into this evolutionary scenario. Initially, it was believed that Native American populations had not been exposed to TB until European Contact (EC), because TB was one of the diseases that ravaged Native American people at the time of contact, which suggested they had no immunity. Skeletal markers of TB infection exist, often on the ribs and spine, and these markers are seen in ancient Native Americans from at least a thousand years ago, confirming that TB was present in the Americas before EC. TB ancient DNA (aDNA) isolated from Peruvian mummies was found to be most similar to M. pinnipedii, an MTC species that previously showed no evidence of infecting humans. The authors suggest sea mammals, the natural hosts of M. pinnipedii, as a novel route for the disease to be transmitted to humans. Is this how TB first came to the Americas, or was this a secondary acquisition of a disease already present in humans? Through next-generation aDNA analysis, this is the research question that this project will address. Preliminary analysis of portions of the gyrase-B and 16s genes from North American samples suggests they are quite different from the Peruvian samples. Sequence differences between ancient samples and modern M. pinnipedii at these two genes analyzed as part of a pilot study suggest it is very unlikely that our samples are derived from M. pinnipedii. In fact, phylogenetic analyses suggest that the Midwestern samples from the pilot study are likely ancestral to all modern strains of TB, both human- and animal-infecting. If true, this would have important implications for interpreting the evolution and differentiation of the various modern strains within the MTC. Further analyses of these potentially ancestral strains will be crucial for how we understand the evolutionary history of TB. All of the work for this project will utilize samples from Midwestern pre-EC burial sites in Illinois, which date to the Middle and Late Woodland and Mississippian periods (~1000 BCE – 1500 CE). These periods cover approximately fifteen hundred years before European contact. The first sustained settler contact with Midwestern Native American groups would have occurred well after these periods, which makes them good sites for examining the pre- contact disease environment. Next-generation DNA sequencing provides a new cutting-edge method to analyze a much larger portion of the genome; and while one of the caveats of aDNA research is that often only small fragments are available, next generation sequencing (NGS) relies on small fragments for analysis, making it ideal for this project. 3 Anthropology Section continued….. Mastodon Extinction in the Context of Dental Microwear Texture: Preliminary Findings Sarah Fann & Christopher Schmidt, University of Indianapolis The extinction of the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) is thought to have been caused by dramatic climate changes or human overhunting. The purpose of this study was to determine if mastodon diets, as indicated by dental microwear texture, changed prior to their extinction. In a previous study of mastodon macrowear we found no differences between earlier (greater than 20,000 years ago) and more recent (around 15,000 years ago)