Abstract: | The current report presents simple equations for the estimation of the original number of individuals that have been preserved in a sample of commingled remains and compares the estimates obtained by them to those obtained from the application of the joint hypergeometric estimator, elaborate computer simulations and documented collections. The equations that perform better under different preservation scenarios are the ones that take into consideration that the various bone types have different post mortem survival probabilities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |