This data consists of 3D surface scans of 43 mice humeri (right anatomical side), which have been extracted from micro-computed tomography (microCT) files. The original analysis of these bones was conducted in an earlier study (Siegel & Jones [1975] American Journal of Physical Anthropology 42:141-144), focusing on the effects of climbing activity on bone dimensions. In the new study by Karakostis and Wallace (DOI after publication: 10.1002/ajpa.24700), the 3D surface scans were used to compare between habitual climbers (21) and controls (22) by applying the "Validated Entheses-based Reconstruction of Activity" (V.E.R.A.) method on four muscle attachment sites of the humerus (greater tubercle, lesser tubercle, supinator crest, and deltoid tuberosity). Significant entheseal differences were found between activity groups in both univariate and multivariate analyses, showing that our approach can be used to identify skeletal evidence of habitual climbing activities in mice.

The bones were first analyzed in the original experimental study on this material (Siegel & Jones [1975] American Journal of Physical Anthropology 42:141–144). For the purposes of the new study (Karakostis and Wallace; DOI after publication: 10.1002/ajpa.24700), the bones were scanned using a microCT 40 Scanco medical scanner (Brüttisellen, Switzerland),  at an isometric voxel size of 10 μm. Then, isosurfaces were generated and extracted as 3D surface models in STL format using the Avizo Lite software (v. 9.2.0, FEI Visualization Sciences Group, Hillsboro, OR). Finally, they were imported into Meshlab (v. 2021.05, ISTI-CNR Inc., Pisa, Italy) to be analyzed based on the "Validated Entheses-based Reconstruction of Activity" (V.E.R.A.) method.

The uploaded 3D surface scans (STL format) can be opened in any program or software used to visualize and process 3D data, such as the open-access Meshlab software (v. 2021.05, ISTI-CNR Inc., Pisa, Italy) or Avizo Lite (v. 9.2.0, FEI Visualization Sciences Group, Hillsboro, OR).