1. Forensic Anthropology: Studying Bones

2. Forensic Anthropology
It’s the application of physical anthropology to the legal process.
Identify skeletal, badly decomposed or unidentified human remains for legal and human reasons.
Started during the 19th century, popular during 1930s because of WWII and the Korean War.

3. Forensic Anthropologists can often answer many questions:
Are the remains human?
Are the remains a single individual or mixed remains of several individuals?
When did the death occur?
What are the gender, age, and race of the individual?

4. Forensic Anthropologists can often answer many questions:
What caused the death?
What kind of death was it – a homicide, a suicide, and accident or a natural death, or is the cause still undetermined?
Did the individual have any anatomical peculiarities, signs of disease, or old injuries?

5. Forensic Anthropologists can often answer many questions:
Can the individual’s height, body weight, and physique be estimated?

6. Role of the Forensic Anthropologist:
Forensic Anthropology
Role of the Forensic Anthropologist:
Recover Human Remains
Identify Human Remains
Determine Time or Cause of Death

7. Locating Human Remains
Forensic Anthropology > Recovering Remains
Locating Human Remains
Cadaver dogs
Remote sensing methods

8. Anthropologists can help:
Forensic Anthropology > Recovering Remains
Anthropologists can help:
Find small bones or bone fragments
Recover clothing and trace materials associated with bones
Prevent damage of bones
Map the location of bones and maintain chain of custody

9. Why Study Bones?
They constitute the evidence for the study of fossil man.
They are the basis of racial classification in prehistory.
They are the means of biological comparison of prehistoric peoples with the present living descendents.
They bear witness to burial patterns and thus give evidence for the culture and world view of the people studied.
They form the major source of information on ancient diseases and often give clues as to the causes of death.
Their identification often helps solve forensic cases.
From: "Human Osteology - A Laboratory and Field Manual" 3rd Edition, 1987

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

11. Determination of Gender
Male vs. Female Pelvis

12. 1. Determination of Sex
Pelvis is the best bons (differences due to adaptations to childbirth)
1. Females have wider subpubic angle
> 90o in women
< 90o in men 2. 2. 3. 3. 1. 1.

13. Why does a female’s subpubic angle need to be greater than 90o?

14. 1. Determination of Sex
Pelvis is the best bones (differences due to adaptations to childbirth)
2. Females have a sciatic notch > 90° 2. 2. 2.

17. 1. Determination of Sex
Pelvis is the best bones (differences due to adaptations to childbirth)
3. Females have a broad pelvic inlet
Males have a more narrow pelvic inlet 2. 2. 2.

19. Determination of Sex
The acetabulum - the socket in the pelvis, which is used to secure the head of the femur - is larger in males than in females.

20. Gender with Skulls
Male vs. Female Skull

21. Male (left) and female (right) skulls
Forensic Anthropology
Determining Sex using the skull
Male (left) and female (right) skulls

22. 1. Determination of Sex: Cranium
Crests and ridges 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)

25. 1. 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 mm, while it is mm in males

26. 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.

27. White, Asian, African
From: Beyers, S.N. (2005). Introduction to Forensic Anthropology

28. 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
Feel the base of the nasal cavity, on either side of the nasal spine – do you feel sharp ridges (nasal silling), rounded ridges, or no ridges at all (nasal guttering)?
Prognathism: extended lower jaw
Shape of eye orbits (round or squareish
Nasal spine

29. Nasal Silling and Guttering
From: Beyers, S.N. (2005). Introduction to Forensic Anthropology

30. General Shapes of the Eye Orbits
From: Beyers, S.N. (2005). Introduction to Forensic Anthropology

32. Determination of Race: Caucasian
Nasal spine:
Prominent
Progathism: straight
Orbital openings:
round
Determination of Race: Caucasian
Trait
Nasal Index:
<.48
Nasal Spine:
Prominent spine
Nasal Silling / Guttering:
Sharp ridge (silling)
Prognathism:
Straight
Shape of Orbital Openings:
Rounded, somewhat square

33. Determination of Race: Asian (Asian decent and Native American decent)
Trait
Nasal Index
Nasal Spine
Somewhat prominent spine
Nasal Silling/ Guttering
Rounded ridge
Prognathism
Variable
Shape of Orbital Openings
Rounded, somewhat circular

34. Determination of Race: African: (everyone of African decent and West Indian decent)
Trait
Nasal Index
>.53
Nasal Spine
Very small spine
Nasal Silling/ Guttering
No ridge (guttering)
Prognathism
Prognathic
Shape of Orbital Openings
Rectangular or square

35. Determination of Age
The long bones are those that grow primarily by elongation at an epiphysis at one end of the growing bone. The long bones include the femurs, tibias, and fibulas of the legs, the humeri, radii, and ulnas of the arms, and the phalanges of the fingers and toes.
As a child grows the epiphyses become calcified (turn to hard bone)

36. Cartilage is darker on xray than solid bone. Epiphyses aren’t fused yet.
No cartilage visible. Epiphyses are fused.

37. 2. Determination of Age from Bones
Ages 0-5: teeth are best – forensic odontology
Baby teeth are lost and adult teeth erupt in predictable patterns
Ages 6-25: epiphyseal fusion – fusion of bone ends to bone shaft
epiphyseal fusion varies with sex and is typically complete by age 25
Ages 25-40: very hard
Ages 40+: basically wear and tear on bones
periodontal disease, arthritis, breakdown of pelvis, etc.
Can also use ossification of bones such as those found in the cranium

38. Epiphyseal Fusion: A General Guide

39. Epiphyseal Fusion
The figures below are of the Epiphyses of the femur or thigh bone (the ball end of the joint, joined by a layer of cartilage).
The lines in the illustrated Image 1 show the lines or layers of cartilage between the bone and the epiphyses. The lines are very clear on the bone when a person, either male or female is not out of puberty.
In Image 2, you see no visible lines. This person is out of puberty. The epiphyses have fully joined when a person reaches adulthood, closing off the ability to grow taller or in the case of the arms, to grow longer.
Figure 2.
Figure 1.

40. 2. Determination of Age from Bone: Signs of wearing and antemortem injury
Occupational stress wears bones at joints
Surgeries or healed wounds aid in identification

41. 2. Age Determination: Use of Teeth

42. 3. Determination of Stature
Long bone length (femur, tibia, humerus) is proportional to height
There are tables that forensic anthropologists use (but these also depend to some extent on race)
Since this is inexact, there are ‘confidence intervals’ assigned to each calculation.
For example, imagine from a skull and pelvis you determined the individual was an adult Caucasian, the height would be determine by:
Humerus length = 30.8 cm
Height = 2.89 (MLH) cm
= 2.89 (30.8) cm
= 167 cm (5’6”) ± cm
See your lab handout for more tables

43. 4. Other Information We Can Get From Bones:
Evidence of trauma (here GSW to the head)
Evidence of post mortem trauma (here the head of the femur was chewed off by a carnivore)

44. Sources:
A very good website with photos and information on forensic anthropology (including estimating age, stature, sex and race):
A good site with a range of resources:
Another good primer for determining informtion from bones:
Great, interactive site:

45. Sex Determination - Skull
Trait
Female
Male
Upper Edge of Eye Orbit
Sharp
Blunt
Shape of Eye Orbit
Round
Square
Zygomatic Process
Not expressed beyond external auditory meatus
Expressed beyond external auditory meatus
Nuchal Crest (Occipital Bone)
Smooth
Rough and bumpy
External Occipital Protuberance
Generally Absent
Generally present
Frontal Bone
Round, globular
Low, slanting
Mandible shape
Rounded, V-shaped
Square, U-shaped
Ramus of mandible
Slanting
Straight