morphomap: An R package for long bone landmarking, cortical thickness, and cross-sectional geometry mapping

Area of Science:

• Paleoanthropology
• Biomechanics
• Computational Biology

Background:

• Long bone loading history is inferred from biomechanical parameters, external shape, and cortical thickness.
• Existing methods for long bone analysis can be time-consuming and require integration of multiple approaches.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and demonstrate the functionalities of morphomap, a novel R package for long bone analysis.
• To facilitate rapid extraction of shape information, cortical thickness mapping, and biomechanical parameter calculation.

Main Methods:

• morphomap processes a 3D mesh of a long bone to generate evenly spaced virtual sections.
• The package includes modules for semilandmark placement, cortical thickness extraction, and cross-sectional geometry computation.
• It integrates geometric morphometrics, cortical morphometric mapping, and cross-sectional geometry.

Main Results:

• Application of morphomap to Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes femora demonstrated its utility.
• The software provides typical outputs for morphometric and biomechanical analyses.
• morphomap enables rapid analysis and functional interpretation of long bone form.

Conclusions:

• morphomap is a valuable software tool for osteoarcheological analysis.
• It integrates key methodologies for parametrizing long bones.
• The package facilitates efficient and comprehensive biomechanical and morphometric studies.