Sex Determination of Adolescent Skeletons Using the Distal Humerus

摘要

Accurate determination of the sex ofnimmature skeletal remains is difficult in the absence ofnDNA, due to the fact that most sexually dimorphic fea-ntures of the human skeleton develop as secondary sexncharacteristics during adolescence. Methods of assess-nment of adult skeletons cannot reliably be applied to ad-nolescent skeletons because of the transitional nature ofnthe skeleton at puberty and the variability of the adoles-ncent growth spurt. The purpose of this work was to eval-nuate the accuracy of Rogers’s method of morphologicalnsex determination using the distal humerus (Rogers: JnForensic Sci 44 (1999) 55–59) to assess the sex of adoles-ncent skeletons. The sample consists of 7 documented ado-nlescent skeletons from the Christ Church Spitalfields col-nlection at the British Museum of Natural History and 35nfrom the Luis Lopes skeletal collection housed in thenNational History Museum (Museu Bocage) of the Univer-nsity of Lisbon, Portugal. Ages range from 11 to 20 years.nThe technique achieved an accuracy of 81% on the com-nbined sample of 42. This method can be applied to ado-nlescent skeletons once the trochlea begins fusing to thenhumeral diaphysis, which occurred by age 11 years innthe test samples