A Standardized Nomenclature for Craniofacial and Facial Anthropometry
![handle is hein.journals/injlegame130 and id is 863 raw text is: Int J Legal Med (2016) 130:863-879
DOI 10.1007/s00414-015-1292-1
METI{QD PAP\ER
A standardized nomenclature for craniofacial
and facial anthropometry
Jodi Caple' , Carl N. Stephan'
Received: 20 April 2015 /Accepted: 11 November 2015 /Published online: 11 December 2015
C Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract Standardized terms and methods have long been
recognized as crucial to reduce measurement error and in-
crease reliability in anthropometry. The successful prior use
of craniometric landmarks makes extrapolation of these land-
marks to the soft tissue context, as analogs, intuitive for foren-
sic craniofacial analyses and facial photogrammetry. Howev-
er, this extrapolation has not, so far, been systematic. Instead,
varied nomenclature and definitions exist for facial landmarks,
and photographic analyses are complicated by the generaliza-
tion of 3D craniometric landmarks to the 2D face space where
analogy is subsequently often lost, complicating anatomical
assessments. For example, landmarks requiring palpation of
the skull or the examination of the 3D surface typology are
impossible to legitimately position; similar applies to median
landmarks not visible in lateral photographs. To redress these
issues without disposing of the craniometric framework that
underpins many facial landmarks, we provide an updated and
transparent nomenclature for facial description. This nomen-
clature maintains the original craniometric intent (and base
abbreviations) but provides clear distinction of ill-defined
(quasi) landmarks in photographic contexts, as produced
when anatomical points are subjectively inferred from
shape-from-shading information alone.
Keywords Forensic science Skull Face Skeletons
Cephalometry Craniometry Corpulometry Capulometry
W Jodi Caple
jodi.caple@uqconnect.edu.au
The Laboratory for Human Craniofacial and Skeletal Identification
(HuCS-ID Lab), School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of
Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia
Standardized terms and methods have long been recognized
as crucial to the reduction of measurement error in anthropom-
etry and for unity of description in anatomical morphology.
Classic examples abound, such as establishment of special
committees for standardization [1-3] and the production of
international agreements for the unification of anthropometry
[1, 2]. Speaking volumes to the weight of the subject is the
(repeated) publication of the International Agreement for the
Unification of Craniometric and Cephalometric
Measurements across three major journals within 13 years
during the initial consolidation of the discipline:
L'Anthropogie (1906) [1], Science (1912) [4], and The Amer-
ican Journal of Physical Anthropology (1919) [5]. Signifi-
cance in the historical context is further highlighted by
Hrdlicka's call in his first entry to the first volume of the
American Journal of PhysicalAnthropology for definite uni-
fication and perfection of anthropometry in its entire range;
[and] systematization ofthe methods of treating and recording
data [6] p.13. Naturally, increased standardization of anthro-
pometric nomenclature found use in anatomy (see e.g., [7] or
for more recent examples [8-10]), thereby contributing to the
parallel and exemplary efforts in that discipline to standardize
human morphology nomenclature-see six editions of the
Parisiensia Nomina Anatomica beginning in 1955 [11], now
updated by the 1998 Terminologica Anatomica [10], which
comprises 5640 entries [12] and including landmarks like
nasion, bregma, lambda, inion, asterion, gonion, vertex,
basion, and opisthion [10].
In terms of anthropometry standardization, three other
events are especially deserving of mention. First is Paul
Broca's [13, 14] initial push for naming and describing points
de repere, as Howells says, to make them the property of
craniologists once and for all [15] p.477. Second, von
Tdrdk's [16] extensive systemization and formulation of cra-
nial landmarks, with the definition of over 5000 cranial
' Springer
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A Standardized Nomenclature for Craniofacial and Facial Anthropometry
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