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Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Anthropology. Forensic Anthropology study of human skeletal remains (physical anthropology) to determine sex, age, race, and time of death in an effort to identify an individual Specialties include:

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Forensic Anthropology

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  1. Forensic Anthropology

  2. Forensic Anthropology • study of human skeletal remains (physical anthropology) to determine sex, age, race, and time of death in an effort to identify an individual • Specialties include: • Forensic Taphonomy –Interpretation of primarily outdoor death scenes and postmortem changes to remains. • Forensic Archeology – recovery of scattered or buried remains • Facial Reproduction – extrapolation of soft tissue form based on skeletal form • Biomechanical interpretation of sharp and blunt force injuries, primarily to bone

  3. Forensic Anthropologist • To be one you need: • PhD Physical Anthropology – UT Knoxville (Dr. William Bass) • American Board of Forensic Anthropology (ABFA) Certification – PhD + at least three years of postdoctoral practice in forensic work, in addition to passing a rigorous written and practical exam

  4. Forensic Anthropology Human Skeletal Anatomy

  5. Forensic Anthropology • Three primary tasks • Identification of victim, or at least provide a biological profile (age, sex, stature, ancestry, anomalies, pathology, individual features) • Reconstructing post mortem period based on condition of the remains and recovery context. • Providing data regarding the death event, including evidence of trauma occurring during peri mortem period.

  6. Forensic Anthropology • Taphonomy • Anthropologists interpret postmortem changes (taphonomy), particularly in outdoor death scenes. These changes might include: • Alteration and scattering by scavengers • Normal decomposition • Modification by moving water • Freezing or mummification

  7. Developing a Biological Profile • Noting generic characteristics of shape and size which may allow an estimation of age, sex, and population ancestry • Unique ante mortem characteristics known by friends or family i.e. healed bone fracture or unusual dental configuration • Typically starts with broad range, narrowed in subsequent steps • There are always exception to range i.e.. Mixed ancestries, size issues with sexual dimorphism, etc.

  8. Identification Caveat • Informative features about the age, sex, race and stature of individuals based on bones is based on biological differences between sexes and races (males are generally taller and more robust) as well as differences due to ancestry (certain skeletal features of the skull) • However, it is imprecise because so much human variation • exists and because racial differences tend to homogenize as • populations interbreed • Still differences do exist and the more features • you survey, the more precise your conclusions • will be

  9. What Can We Learn? • Determination of Sex • Pelvis • Skull • Determination of Race • Skull • Approximate Age • Growth of long bones • Approximate Stature • Length of long bones • Postmortem or antimortem injuries • Postmortem interval (time of death)

  10. Determination of Sex • Pelvis is the best bones (differences due to adaptations to childbirth) • females have wider subpubic angle • females have a sciaticnotch > 90° • females have a broad pelvic inlet 1. 2. 2. 3. 2. 2. 3. 3. 1. 1.

  11. Determination of Sex females have a broad, shovel-like Ilium females have a flexible pubic symphysis 4. 5. 5 . 4.

  12. Determination of Sex: Cranium • Ridges (brow/ supraorbital, temporal) and crests (nuchal, saggital) are more pronounced in males (A, B, C) • Chin significantly more square in males (E) • Mastoid process wide and robust in males • Forehead slopes more in males (F)

  13. Determination of Sex: Cranium • Presence of an Inion hook is almost exclusively seen in Caucasian males (A) • Pronounced muscle attachments in males • Superior border of the orbit is sharp in females and more dull in males A

  14. Determination of Sex: Cranium

  15. Determination of Sex • Normally, the long bones alone are not used alone to estimate gender. However, if these bones are the only ones present, there are characteristics that can be used for sex determination. • E.g. maximum length of Humerus in females is 305.9 mm, while it is 339.0 mm in males

  16. Determination of Sex

  17. Determination of Race • It can be extremely difficult to determine the true race of a skeleton for several reasons: • First, forensic anthropologists generally use a three-race model to categorize skeletal traits: Caucasian (European), Asian (Asian/Amerindian), and African (African and West Indian). • Although there are certainly some common physical characteristics among these groups, not all individuals have skeletal traits that are completely consistent with their geographic origin. • Second, people of mixed racial ancestry are common. • Often times, a skeleton exhibits characteristics of more than one racial group and does not fit neatly into the three-race model. • Also, the vast majority of the skeletal indicators used to determine race are non-metric traits which can be highly subjective. • Despite these drawbacks, race determination is viewed as a critical part of the overall identification of an individual's remains.

  18. White, Asian, African

  19. Features of the Skull Used in Race Determination • Nasal index: The ratio of the width to the height of the nose, multiplied by 100 • Nasal Spine • Width of face • Feel the base of the nasal cavity, on either side of the nasal spine – sharp ridges (nasal silling), rounded ridges, or no ridges at all (nasal guttering) • Prognathism: Overbite, underbite, absence • Shape of eye orbits (round, angular or sloped, rectangular) • Molars (simple or complex, crenulated) • Suture patterns ( Metopic, zygomatico-maxillary, wormian bones) • Race specific idiosyncrasies) Nasal spine

  20. Nasal Silling and Guttering

  21. General Shapes of the Eye Orbits

  22. Orbital openings: round Nasal spine: Prominent Progathism: straight Determination of Race:Caucasian

  23. Determination of Race:Caucasian

  24. Determination of Race:Caucasian Simple Molar Patterns

  25. Determination of Race:Caucasian Being able to see the oval window through the external auditory meatus on a dry cranial specimen has recently been discovered to be of some importance in differentiating between Caucasoid and American Indian, or Mongoloid skeletal remains The window is seen because the opening of the meatus is longer and wider in Caucasoids.

  26. Determination of Race:Caucasian Retention of the metopic suture is generally a Caucasoid trait. This suture is present in the fetus as the cranial bones are forming but usually becomes obliterated as the skull develops.

  27. Determination of Race:Caucasian Caucasoid generally have parabolic shaped palates. Although it cannot be seen here, the palatine suture in Caucasoid bulges.

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