1. Forensic Anthropology
“There is a brief but very informative biography of an individual contained within the skeleton, if you know how to read it…”
-Clyde Snow, forensic anthropologist

2. Alphonse Bertillon Father of Anthropometry
Developed ID method based on 11 measurements
Unreliable – abandoned for fingerprints

3. Bertillon LAB

4. I think them be BONES…

5. What is Bone?

6. Bone Function 206 bones in an adult human Function of bones:
Provides structure and rigidity
Protects soft tissue and organs
Serves as an attachment for muscles
Produces blood cells
Serves as a storage area for minerals
Can detoxify the body by removing heavy metals and other foreign elements from the blood

7. Under the Microscope

8. Anthropologists can use either whole bones or PIECES OF BONE to make the following determinations:
An age range
Sex
Race
Approximate height
Cause of death, disease, or anomaly

9. You will be able to: Distinguish between a male and a female skeleton
Give an age range after examining unknown remains
Describe differences in skull features among the three major racial categories
Estimate height by measuring long bones

10. Bones and landmarks to know:
Cranial bones
Pubic arch
Patella
Cranial Sutures
Sciatic notch
Tibia
Mandible
Hyoid
Fibula
Teeth
Clavicle
Metatarsals
Epiphyseal Line/Plate
Humorus
Tarsals
Radius
Vertebral column
Ulna
Sacrum
Carpals
Coccyx
Metacarpals
Coxal bones
Phalanges
Pubic symphysis
Femur

13. Age At birth, humans have approximately 450 bones
Bones fuse as we grow
The last bone fuses at ~26 YOA
There are 206 bones in the adult body

14. Age Determination Most accurate estimations from:
Teeth
Epiphyses or growth plates
Pubic symphysis
Cranial sutures: the three major cranial sutures appear as distinct lines in youth and gradually close from the inside out.
Investigators always use an age range because of the variation in people and how they age. The investigator does not want to eliminate any possibilities for identification.

15. Age Determination Using Cranial Sutures
Sagittal suture
Sagittal suture completely closed
Males—26 or older
Female—29 or older
Sagittal suture is complete open
Male—less than 32
Female—less than 35
Complete closure of all three major sutures
Male—over 35
Female—over 50
Lambodial
Coronal

16. Age Determination Using Basilar Suture
Technically known as the synchondrosis spheno-occipitalis, closes in females as young as 14 and in males as young as 16. If the suture is open, the individual is generally considered 18 or younger.

17. Age Determination Using Epiphysis
Stage of Union
of Medial Clavicle
Male
Female
Non-union without separate epiphysis
21 or younger
20 or younger
Non-union with separate epiphysis
16-21
17-20
Partial union
17-30
17-33
Complete union
21 or older
20 or older

18. Age Determination Using Epiphysis
Stage of Union
of the Iliac Crest
Male
Female
Non-union without separate epiphysis
16 or younger
11 or younger
Non-union with separate epiphysis
13-19
14-15
Partial union
14-23
Complete union
17 or older
18 or older

19. What else can we learn from bones?
DNA samples can be collected from bone, teeth, and hair to provide clues to a person’s identity.
Scientists may also be able to gain clues as to a person’s past, recent injuries, or the cause of death based on bone fractures and other signs of trauma.
Damage from a hammer
Healed Fractures
Gunshot Wounds
Images:

20. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
Facial Restoration
Detective’s Story:
After determining the sex, age, and race of an individual, facial features can be built upon a skull to assist in identification. Erasers are used to make tissue depths at various points on the skull. Clay is used to build around these markers and facial features are molded.
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

21. Steps in Facial Reconstruction
Model muscles on skull
Add fatty tissue around eyes and lacrimal glands
Add eyelids
Add the nose
Add the parotid gland
Add the ears
Cover all with layers of skin
Detail the face
With a skull:
Establish age, sex and race
Plot landmarks for tissue thickness
Plot origin and insertion points for muscles
Plot landmarks for facial features
Select a dataset and mount markers for tissue thickness
Mount the eyes
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

22. John Emil List “Breeze Knoll” Westfield, NJ
Three kids, wife, and mother
Late 60s early 70s
Nov 9th: Vacation staycation

23. August 1972, house burnt down – arson unsolved 18 year manhunt
"I'm sorry that it all had to end this way but with so little income I just couldn't go on keeping the family together. And I didn't want them to experience poverty." He made the same excuse to Helen's mother, the children's maternal grandmother. He also mentioned that he could not be sure that their souls would remain pure in the future, giving the impression that he believed he had killed them for their own good. To save his own mother from anguish, he had killed her, too.
August 1972, house burnt down – arson unsolved
18 year manhunt
"I'm sorry that it all had to end this way but with so little income I just couldn't go on keeping the family together. And I didn't want them to experience poverty." He made the same excuse to Helen's mother, the children's maternal grandmother. He also mentioned that he could not be sure that their souls would remain pure in the future, giving the impression that he believed he had killed them for their own good. To save his own mother from anguish, he had killed her, too.

24. WANDA FLANNERY
Tabloids
Neighbor Bob Clark

25. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
One Final Product
John List killed his entire family, moved to a new town and assumed a new identity. Seventeen years later, Frank Bender reconstructed what he believed List would look like. It was shown on America’s Most Wanted, and he was turned in by the viewers almost immediately. . . looking very much like the reconstruction.
Check out more about this story on CourtTV’s crime library:
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

26. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
People in the News
Bill Bass is a forensic anthropologist who has assisted law enforcement with hundreds of cases. He established the world’s first and only laboratory devoted to the study of human decomposition at the University of Tennessee’s Anthropology Research Facility.
It is known as “the body farm.”
Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company

27. Tools of the Trade
Tools of Anthropologists

28. Reading the Remains Watch the video and then answer the questions.
What information do they provide for law enforcement agencies?
How many skeletons do they have in their collection?
What do they learn about a skeleton from each tool?
CT Scan –
X- ray –
Mass spectrometer –
Scanning electron microscope –
DNA Analysis –

29. Forensic Tools & Techniques
Watch the video and then answer the questions.
What techniques or tools did the scientists use to find the body?
What is “disturbed soil”? What might it indicate?
How did they narrow down the areas to investigate?
Did they find a body?

30. Dirty Bones

31. How to excavate bones
What is the correct procedure for excavating bone?
What is the “context” of the bones?
What materials are the excavation tools made of?
Why is this material used?

32. Caveman found buried the way females were buried.