Final answer:
The methods for estimating the age at death in adults are indeed based on skeletal changes that occur over a person's lifetime, such as deterioration or morphological changes. Transition analysis, leveraging Bayes's theorem and prior age distributions, offers a more accurate and less biased method than traditional estimation techniques.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that methods for estimating the age at death of adults are based on a lifetime of skeletal deterioration is generally A. True. Age estimation in paleodemography is achieved by observing morphological changes within specific skeletal structures that occur predictably with age. Traditional methods typically involve categorizing various stages of skeletal features with corresponding mean ages derived from reference samples where the ages at individuals' deaths are known. However, these traditional methods can be biased, often underestimating the ages of older adults due to the younger composition of reference samples used for comparison, a phenomenon known as "age mimicry."
Transition analysis is an updated procedure that applies Bayes's theorem and a maximum likelihood estimation for more accurate age-at-death estimation. It mitigates bias by combining conditional probabilities from a known-age reference sample with a prior distribution of ages at death, such as historical records, providing a more balanced approach.