2.5.1. Maturation Criterion: Shape Stages

Maturation stages were established on the *pars basilaris* shapes of the nonpathological learning sample A to visualize the *pars basilaris* morphological changes through time. With this sample, consensus shapes from 4 to 26 weeks with overlap every 2 to 13 weeks were created, which enabled us to have intermediate shapes and, thus, a continuous vision of maturation from 16 weeks in utero to 77 postnatal weeks. Thus, 19 stages of consensus shapes, defined by the mean of 5–52 shapes depending on stages, were obtained (Table 1). Then, to visualize and compare the morphology of each consensus shape, the *pars basilaris* outlines were reconstructed from Fourier coefficients with the inverse Fourier transform function [56–58].

**Table 1.** Sample A: age group (in weeks), number of weeks, and number of individuals according to the 19 *pars basilaris* maturation stages as well as femoral growth in percentiles (minimal values of 0–10, 10, 50, and 90 and maximal value of 100 + 10, in millimeters).

