Anatomist Mildred Trotter's pioneering bone studies contributed to a wide range of disciplines, including medicine, forensics, engineering, and aeronautics. In 1952, Trotter (1899-1991) formulated a method for using bone length to estimate the height of the body it came from; this proved to be useful for forensic experts.

Mildred Trotter was an anatomist and physical anthropologist whose pioneering bone studies contributed to a wide range of disciplines, including medicine, forensics, engineering, and aeronautics. "She has been responsible for the largest single increase in our knowledge of bone, both as a tissue and as the primary locus of the mineral mass of the human body," observed Dr. Stanley M. Garn, professor of nutrition at the University of Michigan. Her method for using the length of certain bones to estimate the height of their owners in life has been a primary tool of forensic experts and physical anthropologists since its formulation...