Cephalic Index (Noun)
Meaning
Ratio (in percent) of the maximum breadth to the maximum length of a skull.
Classification
Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas.
Examples
- The cephalic index is used in physical anthropology to categorize the skull shapes of different human populations into different racial groups.
- The average cephalic index for the population was calculated by measuring the maximum breadth and length of the skulls in the sample.
- A high cephalic index indicates a brachycephalic skull, meaning that the skull is more rounded in shape.
- The cephalic index is a ratio of the maximum breadth to the maximum length of a skull, expressed as a percentage.
- Anthropologists have used the cephalic index to study the variation in skull shapes among different human populations.