DMU Professor Co-Authors Visual Atlas of the Human Skeleton from Birth to Adulthood

WEST DES MOINES, IA (10/27/2025) With the recent publication of "A Visual Atlas of Skeletal Growth and Development," Heather Garvin, Ph.D., D-ABFA, professor of anatomy at Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences, is helping provide a much-needed resource for students and practitioners in anatomy, biological anthropology, human biology and health sciences.

The atlas, co-authored with Kyra Stull, Ph.D., D-ABFA, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno, illustrates the skeletal growth and development of individual bones from birth through skeletal maturity (age 20). Each bone is shown in multiple views at annual increments, illustrating changes in shape and fusion with age.

"A Visual Atlas of Skeletal Growth and Development" was designed to supplement comprehensive texts like Scheuer and Black's "Developmental Juvenile Osteology, 1st Edition" with visualizations of skeletal elements at each year of age.

Garvin, a forensic anthropologist, recognized the need for such a resource through her own work with the human skeleton, including training students.

"Everyone's used to seeing the adult skeleton, but unfortunately, sometimes we have cases that involve infants or children, and there aren't a lot of resources out there to assist practitioners or to train students in the growth and development of a child's skeleton," she explains.

Four years ago, Garvin experienced this firsthand while collaborating on a project about a human ancestor infant skeleton found in South Africa. She traveled overseas to identify the tiny fragments and estimate their developmental age.

"That's when I was like, 'We really need this. I need this.' While Dr. Stull and I had planned this book for a while, that trip provided the impetus to make it happen."

The atlas draws on research Garvin and Stull began in 2016 with support from a National Institute of Justice grant. Through that project, they developed the Subadult Virtual Anthropology Database - a skeletal and dental data repository from contemporary populations. The book presents data in tables and plots to support age estimation.

The bone images in the atlas come directly from CT scans, meaning readers are viewing actual, virtual bone specimens rather than illustrations.

Nine other contributors were also directly involved in the atlas, including two DMU graduates - Hannah Porter, D.O. '24, and Andrea Stone, M.S.A. '22, D.O. '24 - who co-authored select chapters and assisted Garvin during research electives at DMU.

So far, the response has confirmed Garvin's expectations: the atlas is needed.

"All the feedback we've received from people in the field is overwhelmingly positive, because it is a resource we didn't previously have," she says.

"A Visual Atlas of Skeletal Growth and Development" is available as a hardback or eBook through the publisher's website and Amazon.

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