We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Sex estimation from dimensions of the base of the skull in Black South Africans.
- Authors
Dayal, Manisha R.; Billings, Brendon K.; Brits, Desiré; Abdallah, Abdallah; Spocter, Muhammad A.; Bidmos, Mubarak A.
- Abstract
The pelvis and the skull are the two most utilised skeletal elements to estimate sex from skeletonised remains due to their sexually dimorphic traits. However, as increasingly more fragmented remains have been presented for analyses, other bones and their fragments have now been subjected to analyses for sex estimation. In the skull particularly, the base has shown to survive harsh conditions. In this study the foramen magnum region was explored in Black South Africans to estimate sex during forensic analyses. Seven measurements of the foramen magnum and surrounding areas were measured in 120 male and female crania and subjected to discriminant function analyses. The average accuracies for the stepwise discriminant functions ranged from 60–71% whilst the average accuracies for the direct discriminant functions ranged from 63–69%. The average accuracies obtained in this study are similar to other studies performed using the foramen magnum. However, these average accuracies are much lower than other skeletal elements that have been used for sex estimation in South Africans. Thus, the equations in this study should be used with caution and only in the absence of more accurate elements. The cranial base has always shown to have a low to moderate expression of sexual dimorphism. The cranial base of Black South Africans is no different.
- Subjects
BLACK South Africans; SKULL base; DIAGNOSTIC sex determination; FISHER discriminant analysis; SEXUAL dimorphism
- Publication
Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 2022, Vol 79, Issue 4, p411
- ISSN
0003-5548
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1127/anthranz/2022/1560