Introduction to Human Osteology
While the discussions of particular functional-morphological skeletal complexes in the work are quite complete, one possible improvement might be to add, near the end of each section, a few words about the possible evolutionary development of each of these complexes. It might be of some benefit, for example, to see a discussion of the presumed evolutionary factors "selecting for" the limited size of, say, the zygomatic arch in modern humans. Femur lengthening is another topic of particular import to many species within the genus Homo, and it might enhance our appreciation of the functional modalities of the leg to have such a conversation, however brief.
Clearly, too much detail in this regard would lie well beyond the scope of the present work; but the authors do set the stage for such a discussion on the first page when they briefly allude to the function of bone, and a few brief allusions to prevailing evolutionary scenarios might round out the work.
The book appears to be very accurate, correctly identifying the salient characteristics of the structural-morphological skeletal complexes within the human body, both in terms of physical detail, and in terms of the relevant terminological nomenclature. The only area where there appears to be something of a diminution in accuracy is in several of the line drawings of the relevant bone material. While many of these drawings are passable (and even these might be enhanced with closer attention to line-work emphasizing depth, contour, and angularity of the bones depicted), some of the drawings are extremely sketchy at best. Let me call particular attention, by way of example, to the drawings of the Humerus, Radius, and Ulna found near the mid-point of the book. These drawings could definitely benefit from the attention of a professional illustrator, or even from that of an archaeological graduate student who specialized in artifact/bone drawings. Moreover, it would also have been nice to have seen a drawing of the actual articulation of the Radius/Ulna bones, similar to the drawing of the articulation of the Tibia/Fibula bones found later in the work.
The book is clearly of surpassing relevance for anyone with a professional interest in the human skeleton; thus also, the book will doubtless have extreme longevity as a scientific manual.
The book is very clear, even if jargon-intensive. Admittedly, the jargon is a critical part of the didactic exposition of the text, and its mastery is absolutely essential for anyone having a professional interest in human osteology. That said, I believe the book would benefit immeasurably from the inclusion of a detailed glossary at the end of the work! (I cannot underscore this point too greatly.) Furthermore, as part of any such glossary a pronunciation guide should be provided for each term. Remember, this is an introductory textbook after all, and the pronunciation of some of these terms is not always intuitive, especially when one has not been exposed to these terms in actual conversation.
FURTHERMORE: my most important recommendation for this work is that at least one set of line-drawings, per bone, have all of the relevant terminology affixed thereto, with lines clearly pointing out the particular characteristic or trait in question. I do recognize that some of these drawings, and/or the photographs themselves, might have been presented as testing templates since they have been left unlabeled, but surely it would be sufficient for the photographs themselves to serve that function, while the line-drawings could be labeled with the relevant terminology. This single addition, I believe, would greatly enhance the teaching
experience of the textbook.
The text is consistent and minimalist throughout. This is an effective approach insofar as it focuses attention on the detail of the individual bones themselves, as well as their identifiying characteristics and terminological references. There does seem to be a consistency issue, however, with the way the text articulates with multiple photographs and drawings accompanying the skeletal-complex discussions. In general, a set of illustrative photographs are placed immediately following the textual discussions of particular bones, and bone characteristics. These are generally followed by line drawings of the same bones, or bone-complexes. There are a few examples, however, of photographs not being followed by line drawings; or of some photographs showing most, but not all, of the relevant angles of observation (for instance, there are no posterior photographic views of the cranium, even
though very complete photographs of the anterior, lateral, superior, and inferior views of the cranium have been included; a
posterior view would have illustrated the suture connecting the occipital with the parietals, and thus further complemented the text). A posterior photograph of the cranium (or any cranium?) should be added for consistency's sake. One final note: the headings on the line-drawings do not reproduce the specificity of the headings on the photographs. This should be rectified and made consistent. In particular, the anterior, and/or posterior views of the bone(s) in question should be added to each such line-drawing heading, to mirror the photographic headings/descriptions. Currently, some of the line-drawings merely have headings like: "Humerus," or "Radius," or "Ulna," without specifying whether the view is anterior or posterior.
The book is extremely well organized in terms of its modularity. Once one does finally locate the pages where a new structural-morphological skeletal complex is discussed, then that "module" is, in fact, very accessible as a discrete unit. But as I indicated in the section "Organization/Flow" below, the problem, here, is in quickly identifying the location of those major sub-heading transitions. Please refer to my comments below for further amplification on the problem of the lack of sub-headings. (Indeed, when I initially looked at the text on-line, I was forced to flip from page to page, navigating by the photographs of particular bones rather than by sub-headings, to actually get my bearings in the work.) The potential for effective modularity is high, but would be enhanced immeasurably with the addition of sequential page numbers throughout the work, and the inclusion of a working "Table of Contents" at the outset.
In general the book is extremely well organized, proceeding from one "skeletal complex" to the next (by skeletal complex I refer to the major structural-morphological groupings like the cranium; the post-cranial bones; the arm bones; the leg bones; etc.). The only difficulty lay in quickly identifying the actual transition between such complexes. Admittedly, the major headings for the two largest complexes--skull and post-cranial bones--are clearly indicated, but beyond this, i.e., at the sub-heading level, the transition from one complex to the next is not always immediately apparent. These transitions of course become obvious with a cursory examination of the actual bones listed, but it would greatly assist the introductory student if the sub-heading transitions were also clearly indicated. For instance, under the major heading: "Post-Cranial Bones" it would have been helpful to see a well-demarcated sub-heading for "Arm Bones", and then subsequently for "Leg Bones." That did not occur; instead, beneath "Post-Cranial Bones" we see an immediate list of morphological terms relevant to the Humerus, then the same for the Radius, and the
same for the Ulna. The sub-heading "Arm Bones" would seem to have been appropriate here, and would have enhanced the flow of the work. The same argument could be made, perhaps with even greater validity, to the transition away from the arm bones (i.e., away from certain images and drawings of the major arm bones found near the end of that section) to the various bones of the leg. At present, on the page following the final drawing of an ulna, one merely finds a list of characteristics of the Femur, the Patella, the Fibula, and the Tibia. It would have been nice to have seen the topic of this new section formally stated: viz. "The Leg Bones."
I could not detect any interface issues whatsoever.
There are occasional issues of spelling, which I attribute more to typographical mistakes than to any laxity in grammatical excellance. For instance, on the first page, near the bottom, we find the following sentence: "...contains the bone forming cells call osteoblasts." Clearly, "call" should be "called." A few additional spelling errors were detected from time to time. Otherwise, in terms of overall sentence and paragraph construction, the work is elegant and economical at all times and merits high praise.
One glaring issue here is the way the work retains the now archaic terminology: "fossil man." This terminology is consistently found throughout the work, and really should be changed to a de-genderized presentation such as: "fossilized humans." After nearly thirty years of attention to de-genderization issues in our scientific works (and indeed, in our everyday language usage), it comes as a spectacularly noticeable oversight to still find the phrase "fossil man" used in a reputable scientific manual such as this. I recommend immediate attention to this issue, throughout the work.
I immensely enjoyed reading and reviewing this work. With attention to the few recommendations for improvement that I have made above, I think the work will remain a standard in the field for years to come.