About

Lyle W Konigsberg is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His research focuses on biological anthropology, with particular emphasis on forensic anthropology, population analysis, and the application of multivariate analysis to biological data. He has contributed to the understanding of typicality calculations in forensic contexts and has developed tools such as the TestDimorph R package for analyzing interpopulation sexual dimorphism. Konigsberg's work also includes demographic studies, including paleodemography, and he has authored numerous publications in reputable journals. His academic profile includes a CV, publications, and research profiles on various platforms, and he is affiliated with multiple campus and external research initiatives.

Research topics

• Mathematics
• Biology
• Statistics
• Computer Science
• Ecology
• Demography
• Zoology
• Geometry
• Medicine
• Anatomy

Selected publications

• Human Biological Variation

  2025-01-01 · 53 citations

  other

  The text explores human biological variation in its broadest sense from the molecular to the physiological and morphological. The main emphasis is on the microevolutionary analysis of genetic variation among recent human populations. The book is designed for an upper-level undergraduate class, but it would also work well as supplemental or background reading for a graduate-level course on human variation.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Multivariate Analysis within the Vertebral Column to Identify Individual Vertebrae

  Forensic Anthropology · 2024-10-11

  article

  This article demonstrates the utility of a multivariate analysis of vertebrae in an applied context. The human vertebral column is a morphologically complex group of elements. Current methods rely on morphological characteristics to classify isolated vertebrae qualitatively. This research provides a bridge between morphological assumptions for vertebral designations and quantitative classification. These osteometric methods and statistical analyses provide quantifiable information relating to the accuracy of vertebrae classification. The sample used for this analysis consists of osteometric vertebral measurements from intact vertebral columns from 59 individuals. In order to assess the potential for these vertebral measurements to classify vertebrae, regional grouping models based on vertebral column segments were developed and analyzed. The data were tested for multivariate normality and homogeneity of variance–covariance matrices in order to comply with the assumptions required by the statistical analyses used for classification. Linear discriminant function analysis was used for classification. The sensitivity and specificity of each vertebral group prediction were used for evaluation. This research demonstrates that by using osteometric methods and statistical analyses, the accuracy of vertebrae classification is quantifiable. This method has been developed to assist with the sorting and analysis of commingled and fragmentary skeletal remains.

  PublisherDOI

• What Should Be Typical about the Way We Calculate Typicality?

  Forensic Anthropology · 2024-10-11

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The probability of correct classification, and ultimately identification, lies at the heart of forensic anthropological analyses. To this end, practitioners rely on a variety of ways to assess the error or uncertainty of their estimates, including the use of statistically based analytical packages such as FORDISC. This article addresses typicality probabilities and specifically examines issues and assumptions with calculating F-statistic typicalities both statistically and within FORDISC. It uses multiple methods to calculate F-test typicality from publicly accessible craniometric data drawn from the Howells data set, a data set also included as reference groups within FORDISC. While the results of these calculations agree across various F-tests proposed by different authors, the results do not match the “TypF” values generated by FORDISC when using the “resubstitution” option. Through additional calculations and various reproducibility exercises, the authors demonstrate how and why “TypF” in FORDISC produces erroneous typicality values with the “resubstitution” option. They also identify the correct equation to incorporate into the software to rectify this problem. This work represents the logical conclusion of a long-running debate the authors had with Stephen D. Ousley and a desire to improve the accuracy and interpretability of analyses generated in FORDISC.

  PublisherDOI

• YEARBOOK OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY PREFACE

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2023-05-08

  reviewOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This issue of the Yearbook of Biological Anthropology marks my fifth and final as Editor. I would first like to offer my sincere thanks to the Associate Editors for the Yearbook, these being: Jada Benn Torres, Jane Buikstra, Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, Darryl de Ruiter, Eduardo Fernández-Duque, Agustín Fuentes, Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, and Laura MacLatchy. Yearbook articles ordinarily are solicited, and consequently I have relied heavily on the Associate Editors to identify emerging as well as traditional areas of research and to suggest scholars who can provide stimulating review articles. The 2024 issue and the following four issues will be under the very capable direction of co-editors Sheela Athreya and Graciela Cabana. Please see https://www.yearbookbioanth.com/ for much more information about the upcoming 2024-2028 issues. It seems only fitting that the 2019 Yearbook (my first as Editor) would have an article on "Plio-Pleistocene hominin foot evolution" (DeSilva, McNutt, Benoit, & Zipfel, 2019) while this Yearbook (my last as Editor) would have an article on the "Form, function and evolution of the human hand." Kivell et al. end this article with the statement that "Equifinality is rife." While they have certainly demonstrated this in the evolution of the hand in hominoids, there is much more to be gleaned from their work. Unlike the DeSilva et al. article, which focused on foot bones from fossils, Kivell et al. necessarily take a view that considers both hand morphology and use among extant hominoids as well as evolution of the hand as represented in the fossil record. Neither pursuit is at all straightforward. Examination of hand use in extant taxa must consider the use of hands in locomotion, in tool manufacture (when this occurs) and in tool use, as well as other manipulative activities, such as food processing. There is the additional problem of studying taxa in the wild versus in zoos and bringing together the different types of data that can be quantified in each. The fossil record is quite spare on relatively complete hand skeletons from individuals, and while joint surfaces may reveal glimpses into hand use, interpretation of soft tissues from the bones is quite another matter. For example, entheses (markings on bone where muscles may attach) are difficult to read and our comparative understanding of neuroanatomy is limited. Finally, as Kivell et al. raise in their question "how have selective pressures on intrinsic foot proportions influenced the intrinsic proportions of the hand…," the hand cannot be viewed as a functional unit that is independent of other functional units or traits. With all these caveats in hand, Kivell et al. do an admirable job of summarizing an enormous literature and of pointing out where research may lead us. In "African apes and the evolutionary history of orthogrady and bipedalism" Williams et al. take a similar path as Kivell et al. (this volume). While Kivell et al. make extensive use of extant hominoids to interpret evolution of the human hand, Williams et al. make extensive use of extant African apes to interpret the evolution of human bipedalism. They do a great service in defining and clarifying the many and diverse uses of "grade" in the locomotion and postural literature including orthograde, pronograde, antipronograde, digitigrade, and palmigrade, among other terms that have been used. To this complexity must be added the percentage of time that primate taxa spend in various postures and locomotor modes. The fossils may give suggestions on this, but it is only from extant taxa that we can draw a fuller picture. Williams et al. do consider the fossil data, focusing on Miocene apes, which may provide a glimpse into the evolution of bipedalism. But just as the Miocene ape fossil foot (DeSilva et al., 2019) and hand skeletons (Kivell et al., this volume) are poorly represented, so too are those fossils that would be informative on postures and locomotion. Moreover, the species they represent are our distant relatives compared to the extant African apes. Williams et al. argue that emerging evidence from the early hominin fossil record converges with what we have learned from extant African apes. Ultimately, Williams et al. conclude that "…extant apes, especially chimpanzees and gorillas, are integral to the study of human evolution…" and that "…extant hominoids provide the scaffolding on which to map and understand the fossil record." The arguments presented in Tsutaya and Mizushima's "Evolutionary biological perspectives on current social issues of breastfeeding and weaning" are elegantly summarized in their Figure 2. Tsutaya (with Yoneda) is probably best known for his work on reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning for archaeological samples, much of which was summarized in a 2015 Yearbook article. Similarly, Kendall et al.'s article in the 2021 Yearbook focused on bioarchaeological interpretations of breastfeeding and weaning. Tsutaya and Mizushima's article appears to be the first Yearbook article, at least in recent history, to cover the evolutionary interpretations of breastfeeding and weaning in the present. As such, they focus on "current social issues" surrounding breastfeeding and weaning within three domains. The first, the spatiotemporal domain includes competing time demands for breastfeeding and the potential difficulties associated with breastfeeding in public. The second domain is abuse of breast milk as a valuable material. This abuse can be seen both in the older practice of exploitative wet-nursing and in some aspects of the newer practice of online trade. The final domain is the mismatch in breastfeeding practices, where feeding entirely on breast milk can impact vitamin D levels while at the same time there may be pressure placed on mothers to exclusively breastfeed. Urlacher's article "The energetics of childhood: Current knowledge and insights into human variation, evolution, and health" brings a currently complete energetics view to an all important phase of human life history. I have intentionally referred to this as "a currently complete” view because Urlacher makes it very clear that there are large lacunae in data, and consequently, our total understanding of the energetics of childhood. Gold standards, such as the doubly labelled water method to measure daily total energy expenditure, have not been widely applied among children. Further, data is sparse from children in low- and middle-income countries as is clear from Urlacher's Table 1. He also stresses the fact that studies are typically cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. And his statement that: "Data collection methods should be standardized, and data should be freely shared with others" is a message that could be applied to any of the articles published in the Yearbook. With all of this said, Urlacher does a masterful job of summarizing the available data on childhood energetics, discussing implications for human variation, evolution, and health, and, importantly, pointing to promising avenues for future research. He concludes that the energetics of childhood appear to be characterized by energy expenditure constraint and underlying trade-offs between competing metabolic tasks, a model that is in line with evolutionary theory and has large implications for human life history, phenotypic variation, and lifelong health. Among other opportunities, Urlacher argues that the brain and the gut are prime targets for future research in childhood energetics. Soto et al. (with Dennis as the corresponding author) describe the importance of genomic structural variants in shaping the evolution of humans and related primates. Gone are the days when single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were the sole fodder for discussing human genetic variation. Structural variants—such as large duplications, deletions, and inversions—can impact genes or regulatory elements with profound effects on human phenotypic variation. The challenge is that these variants cannot be readily assayed using SNP “chips” and that, instead, deep whole genome sequencing is necessary. Moreover, the short read lengths of most sequencing platforms are often insufficient to fully characterize them, but emerging technologies delivering longer reads (on the order of thousands of base pairs) are improving our understanding of the primate structural variant landscape. Using insights from established and new methods, Soto et al. show exciting examples of the role of structural variants in ape evolution/taxonomy and the evolution of human brain function and lay out ongoing advances in the field. Paul et al. begin their paper on "Integrating genealogy and dental variation: contributions to biological anthropology" with an extensive historical analysis of "genealogy and pedigree data" that was analyzed within the entire history of the AJPA/AJBA. The historical trends are difficult to interpret. Some certainly relate to the availability of sizable samples and specialized software, particularly quantitative genetic programs that can apply maximum likelihood estimation to phenotypes collected along with pedigrees. The fact that Franz Boas collected pedigree data along with his anthropometric data in the late 1800s and early 1900s meant that, although genealogical research was considered important, complex statistical analyses of these data would elude us for nearly a century. Another factor affecting historical trends must be that some biomedically focused work is published in alternative venues. Paul et al. are certainly aware of these effects on historical trends, and they point them out along the way. The paper also outlines ways in which genealogical dental research has the potential to inform anthropological practice. Paul et al. close with an engaging analysis of the "twin testosterone transfer" (TTT) hypothesis, that dizygotic twins of opposite sex will show the effects of in-utero testosterone exposure on the female cotwin. As the authors point out, these effects are remarkably difficult to examine under most settings. Animal models may be of little use and invasive studies in gestating humans carry too high a risk. Examination of morphology or size for those teeth that form during fetal development provides a unique way to study the TTT phenomenon, and Paul et al. find limited support for the hypothesis. Finally, Auerbach and colleagues provide a timely paper advocating for a “whole organism” perspective for hypothesizing about and testing evolutionary questions. In their paper, “Morphology, evolution, and the whole organism imperative: why evolutionary questions need multi-trait evolutionary quantitative genetics,” they discuss the importance of explicit evolutionary modeling through the use of multi-trait quantitative genetics. Through a primer on how models predict responses to selection and neutral evolutionary processes, they provide a useful guide for readers on what kinds of questions may be asked through quantitative genetic models, especially those related to evolvability (Hansen & Houle, 2008; Hansen & Pélabon, 2021). They show through a review of their own studies (e.g., Agosto and Auerbach 2022), as well as numerous studies conducted over the last two decades, how these approaches to studying evolution allow researchers to observe novel relationships among parts of the primate body. Their main take-home idea is that researchers should not parcellate organisms in evolutionary studies without first assessing if those parts are able to respond to evolutionary processes independent of each other. They also caution researchers about proper application of evolutionary quantitative genetic models, and provide helpful guidance for both those who are new to as well as those who work regularly within this area of evolutionary biology. I would like to thank Gillian Greenough and Reeni Sunder at Wiley. They have always given me support and guidance when it was necessary. This was no small feat given the frequency with which I needed help and guidance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• <scp>TestDimorph</scp>: An R package for analysis of interpopulation sexual dimorphism differences using summary statistics

  American Journal of Physical Anthropology · 2023

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Statistics
  • Biology

  OBJECTIVE: The degree of sexual dimorphism in certain traits between males and females differ from one sample to another. Although trait differences by sex are often reported in bioanthropological research, few studies test for statistical significance or make raw data available. TestDimorph is the first R package dedicated to testing and comparing the degree of sexual dimorphism among different samples by leveraging summary statistics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We provide two approaches of analysis of inter-sample differences in degree of sexual dimorphism: univariate and multivariate for two or more samples. The methods follow upon publications primarily from the AJBA. Within-sex size variability between samples is compared using one-way ANOVA followed by control for multiple pairwise comparisons. In addition, we compute the overlapping area between the density functions of two normal distributions from the mixture intersection index or the non-overlapping area using the dissimilarity index as well as Hedges' g with inferential support using the 95% confidence interval. Finally, we use a multivariate analysis of differences in patterning of sexual dimorphism between samples. RESULTS: We demonstrate various results from applying TestDimorph functions to data supplied with the package. DISCUSSION: The package has many features including functionality for working with summary statistics, simulating data from summary statistics, and the extraction of summary statistics from raw data, so that the entire analysis can be performed through the package.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Demography, Including Paleodemography

  2023-03-08 · 1 citations

  other1st authorCorresponding

  Demography is the study of a group's age and sex structure. This chapter focuses on the life table and its continuous form, known as a hazard or survivorship model. For an extant group it may be possible to obtain information on ages-at-death, although generally it is more common to have census information on the living. Single census life table estimates for anthropological samples are made additionally difficult because growth rates may be unknown. A hazard model generalizes the life table so that age is a continuous variable. Differences in mortality profiles derived from archaeological skeletons that accumulated over time, often several centuries or more, are commonly interpreted as mainly reflecting overall fertility, not mortality. Inaccurate and biased skeletal age estimates, especially for adults, continue to plague paleodemographic work. The chapter deals with a stationary abridged life table.

  PublisherDOI

• YEARBOOK OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY PREFACE

  American Journal of Biological Anthropology · 2022-07-16

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel’s contributions to paleodemography

  Presses universitaires de Provence eBooks · 2021-01-01

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Bocquet-Appel’s most highly cited work was his article with Claude Masset published in 1982 in the Journal of Human Evolution: “Farewell to paleodemography.” Indeed, this article has been cited over twice as much as Bocquet-Appel’s second most cited article (“When the world’s population took off”) from the journal Science. While on the surface Bocquet-Appel and Masset’s “Farewell” might be taken as a literal adieu, the article functioned as a clarion call for a paradigm shift in paleodemography. The article pointed out a problem later to be known as “age mimicry,” it questioned the statistical basis for age estimation in paleodemography, and it introduced new demographic estimators that were related to life table parameters while being relatively resistant to biases. Had Bocquet-Appel simply stopped at this point, his contributions to paleodemography would have been substantial. Instead, he continued to publish and push for improvements in paleodemographic methods. While others toiled on maximum likelihood methods, Bocquet-Appel was at the vanguard of those developing Bayesian methods in paleodemography. Although these Bayesian methods were crystalized by others, it is questionable whether they would have done so without Bocquet-Appel’s work in and following his “Farewell to paleodemography” with Masset.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Allometric scaling and growth: Evaluation and applications in subadult body mass estimation

  American Journal of Physical Anthropology · 2021 · 2 citations

  • Biology
  • Statistics
  • Demography

  OBJECTIVES: Previously developed methods in subadult body mass estimation have not been tested in populations other than European-American or African-American. This study uses a contemporary Taiwanese sample to test these methods. Through evaluating their accuracy and bias, we addressed whether the allometric relationships between body mass and skeletal traits commonly used in subadult body mass estimation are conserved among different populations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Computed tomography scans of lower limbs from individuals aged 0-17 years old of both sexes were collected from National Taiwan University Hospital along with documented body weight. Polar second moment of area, distal femoral metaphyseal breadth, and maximum superior/inferior femoral head diameter were collected either directly from the scans or from reconstructed 3D models. Estimated body mass was compared with documented body mass to assess the performance of the equations. RESULTS: Current methods provided good body mass estimates in Taiwanese individuals, with accuracy and bias similar to those reported in other validation studies. A tendency for increasing error with increasing age was observed for all methods. Reduced major axis regression showed the allometric relationships between different skeletal traits and body mass across different age categories can all be summarized using a common fitted line. A revised, maximum likelihood-based approach was proposed for all skeletal traits. DISCUSSION: The results suggested that the allometric relationships between body mass and different skeletal traits are largely conserved among populations. The revised method provided improved applicability with strong underlying theoretical justifications, and potential for future improvements.

  PublisherDOI

• Scaling of linear anthropometric dimensions in living humans

  American Journal of Physical Anthropology · 2021 · 5 citations

  • Statistics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology

  OBJECTIVES: Some previous studies suggest that humans do not conform to geometric similarity (isometry) in anthropometric dimensions of the upper and lower limbs. Researchers often rely on a single statistical approach to the study of scaling patterns, and it is unclear whether these methods produce similar results and are equally robust. This study used one bivariate and one multivariate method to examine how linear anthropometric dimensions scale in a sample of adult humans. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Motion capture marker data from 104 adults of varying height and mass were used to calculate anthropometric dimensions. We analyzed scaling patterns in pooled and separate sexes with two methods: (1) bivariate log-log regression and (2) multivariate principal component analysis (PCA). We calculated 95% highest density/confidence intervals for each method and defined positive/negative allometry as estimates lying outside those intervals. RESULTS: Results identified isometric scaling of the upper arm, thigh, and shoulder, positive allometry of the forearm and shank, and negative allometry of the pelvis in the pooled sample using both statistical methods. Patterns of allometry in the pooled sample were similar between methods but differed in magnitude. Sex-specific results differed in both pattern and magnitude between log-log regression and PCA. Only one measurement (shoulder width) departed from isometry in the sex-specific log-log regressions. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that especially in sex-specific analyses, the pattern and magnitude of allometry are sensitive to statistical methodology. When body mass was selected as the size variable, most human linear anthropometric dimensions in this sample scaled isometrically and were therefore geometrically similar within sexes.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: Multivariate Asymmetry and Allometry in Skeletal Elements for Osteometric Sorting

  NSF · $7k · 2018–2019

Frequent coauthors

• Peter T. Ellison

  Case Western Reserve University

  66 shared

• Daniel J. Wescott

  Texas State University

  62 shared

• Trudy R. Turner

  John Wiley & Sons (United States)

  56 shared

• Thomas Manbeck

  Hudson Institute

  46 shared

• Leslie C. Aiello

  The University of Tokyo

  46 shared

• Anne L. Grauer

  Loyola University Chicago

  46 shared

• J. Josh Snodgrass

  University of Oregon

  46 shared

• Joe Tomaszewski

  University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

  46 shared

Education

• PhD, Anthropology

  Northwestern University

  1987

• B.A., Anthropology and Biology

  Indiana University Bloomington

  1980