Morphological Variation in Talar Joint Facets of the Human Calcaneus II. :

Temporal and Regional Differences in Japanese Islanders

Abstract

Incidences of the "Separate Type" of anterior and middle talar joint surfaces were compared between Jomon, Yayoi, Hokkaido Ainu, and modern main-islands Japanese calcaneal samples. The results showed that 1) In modern Japanese samples, incidences of this trait ranged between 34.7% and 39.8%, and no regional difference in incidence was observed; 2) While the trait incidence in the whole Jomon series was 28.4%, an evident regional difference was found between the eastern Japan Jomon (18.1%) and the western Japan Jomon (33.1%-37.6%); 3) The difference in incidence between the Ainu (10.6%) and eastern Japan Jomon (18.1%), and that between the modern Japanese (37.4%)/Yayoi (33.7%) and western Japan Jomon (33.1%-37.6%) were not significant at the 5% level. From these findings, we inferred that the talar facet morphological variation of the calcaneus could be regarded as a trait deeply related to the diversity of the foot function due to different subsistence patterns, rather than one of the nonmetric traits under genetic control.