Learn how anthropologists use bones to determine whether remains are human; to determine the age, sex, and race of an individual; to estimate height; and to determine when death could have occurred.

 How do forensic scientists go about identifying an unknown individual, and what information can yield information about that person’s fate?

 A type of physical anthropology that specializes in the human skeletal system.  Identifies victims and sometimes cause of death.  Examine bodies that have decomposed, been badly burned or mummified.  Conclusions reached are used in a court of law

 Are remains human?  One individual or several?  When did death occur  Gender, age, and race.  Cause of death-homicide, suicide, accident, or natural cause  Height, body weight, and physique.  Can a facial reconstruction be performed?

 Provides structure and rigidity.  Protects soft tissue and internal organs.  Protects the brain.  Provides attachment site for muscles, tendons, and ligaments.  Produces red blood cells.  Serves as storage for minerals.

 Long bones are longer than wide – arms, legs, feet.  Short bones are as long as wide –wrist and ankle.  Flat bones are flat and enclose soft organs – skull, scapula, sternum, hip, ribs.  Irregular bones are irregularly shaped – vertebrae and some bones of skull.

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 Forensic scientists can estimate height by examining one or more of the long bones – femur, tibia, humerus, radius.  Separate formulas for male and female height.

MALE HEIGHT, HFEMALE HEIGHT, H H = femur  H = tibia  H = humerus  H = radius  H = femur  H = tibia  H = humerus  H = radius  Do not copy, find the resource page 416

 Determining sex using bones – os pubis, sacrum, and ilium, shape of the skull, the shape of the mandible, and the size of the occipital protuberance.  Three areas that can be examined on the pelvic region are; A. the width of the pubic arch B. the width of the pubic body C. the presence of a well-defined ventral arc in females.

A= pubic body, B= ventral arc, c= pubic arch

Green arrows show pubic arch

 Different indicators can be used, but investigator use multiple sites on the skeleton and give age ranges.  Sites used; Erupting teeth Epiphyses – growth plates Closure of the cranial sutures years old.

Epiphyses – bone development

 The bones of the skull join along serrated joints called sutures.  The sagital suture is found on top of the skull and separates left from right side.  The coronal suture runs from the temporal area on one side over the top of the skull to the other side.  In males, the sagital suture is closed around ya, and females ya.