Editing Cephalic index (section)

===Early anthropology===
[[File:Cephalic index map of Europe by Bertil Lundman, 1993.jpg|thumb|Cephalic index map of Europe by Bertil Lundman]]
The cephalic index was used by anthropologists in the early 20th century as a tool to categorize human populations. It was used to describe an individual's appearance and for estimating the age of [[fetus]]es for legal and obstetrical reasons.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025|reason=According to Pfenninger and Fowler's Procedures for Primary Care, Chapter 142 Obstetric Ultrasound, 984-998, the cephalic index remains constant throughout pregnancy and is instead used as a measure of cranial deformity. Need a reference to show it was ever used for the purpose of estimating fetal age}}

The cephalic index was defined by [[Sweden|Swedish]] professor of [[anatomy]] [[Anders Retzius]] (1796–1860) and first used in [[physical anthropology]] to classify ancient human remains found in Europe. The theory became closely associated with the development of [[racial anthropology]] in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when historians attempted to use ancient remains to model population movements in terms of racial categories. American anthropologist [[Carleton S. Coon]] also used the index in the 1960s, by which time it had been largely discredited.

[[File:PSM V59 D404 Cephalic indexes of skull shapes.png|thumb|Cephalic indexes of skull shapes. Long skull (left) – cephalic index 71.4; tall skull (center) – cephalic index 81; broad skull (right) – cephalic index 85]]

In the cephalic index model, human beings were characterized by having either a dolichocephalic (long-headed), mesaticephalic (moderate-headed), or brachycephalic (short-headed) cephalic index or cranial index.
[[File:Otmaa1917 1-1-.jpg|thumb|The children of the Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia]] in June 1917, with loss of hair after fighting [[measles]]: among them, [[Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia|Tatiana]] had the skull with least cephalic index.]]