Forensic Anthropolgy Final minus the last three chapters

Anatomical Position

The standard position of the body with the person standing erect, head facing forward, arms at the sides, palms facing forward, and feet close together with toes pointing forward.

Sagittal Plane

An imaginary plane that divides the body into left and right parts.

Frontal/Coronal Plane

An imaginary plane that divides the body into front and back parts.

Transverse Plane

An imaginary plane that divides the body into top and bottom parts.

Serous Cavities

Body cavities where serous membranes and serous fluid are located, including the peritoneal, pericardial, and pleural cavities.

Flexion

Bending a limb to decrease the angle or moving a body part in an anterior direction.

Abduction

Movement away from the median plane, such as moving upper limbs out to the sides.

Rotation

Turning of a structure around its long axis, as seen in the humerus rotating within the shoulder joint.

Osteoblasts

Cells responsible for producing bone matrix and initiating the process of bone formation.

Endochondral Ossification

The process of bone formation that begins with a cartilage model of the future bone and involves the ossification of many bones until they reach adult height.

Electric Shock Effects

Much greater resistance leads to slowed current flow, causing more damage, especially if it affects the central nervous system or heart's electrical rhythm, potentially fatal.

Skin Resistance in Fire

Skin is resistant to burning, with deaths often due to smoke inhalation, as oxygen fuels the fire and toxic fumes damage the respiratory system severely.

Medicolegal Significance

Remains require investigation if belonging to someone who recently died, focusing on bone or teeth to distinguish human remains from others.

SWGANTH Criteria

Trabecular bone presence, vascularity, and osteological landmarks help differentiate bone from non-bone materials in forensic anthropology.

SLICE Database

FBI's tool compares the chemical makeup of materials to identify bone based on unique calcium to phosphorus ratios, except for similar materials like ivory.

Dental Anatomy

Teeth structure includes crown, root, enamel, dentin, and pulp cavity, anchored by periodontal ligaments, with specific terms for tooth surfaces and functions.

Tooth Identification

Teeth can help identify skeletal remains through unique features, dental fillings, X-rays, and ancestral group affiliations, aiding in forensic investigations.

Postmortem Tooth Loss

Teeth may fall out post-mortem due to decay, impacting identification efforts, while antemortem tooth loss shows bone and soft tissue changes.

Bitemark Evidence

Bitemarks on skin can be challenging to interpret, considering factors like bite size, skin elasticity, and potential postmortem changes, requiring careful analysis.

Bitemarks

Marks left by human teeth, dogs, or mountain lions, usually from incisors and canines, with specific characteristics like rectangular incisor marks and round canine marks.

Pelvic Traits

Features used to determine the sex of skeletal remains, including the shape of the ilium, pubic symphysis, subpubic angle, and obturator foramen.

Bone Biomechanics

Study of bone behavior under stress, including terms like stress, strain, tension, compression, stiffness, elasticity, and plasticity.

Forensic Anthropology

Subfield of biological anthropology focusing on skeletal analysis for legal purposes, such as identifying individuals, determining age, sex, and ancestry, and assessing cause of death.

Professional Ethics

Principles guiding forensic anthropologists, including respect for remains and families, confidentiality, honesty in assessments, and distinguishing between evidence and opinion.

Age Estimation in Subadults

More accurate than in adults, involves assessing skeletal growth stages like endochondral bone formation in long bones and tooth eruption sequences visible in X-rays.

Tooth Development

The process of tooth formation, focusing on hard tissue calcification within crypts, classified into stages for each tooth, often assessed through X-rays.

Long Bone Lengths

Measuring the lengths of long bone diaphyses prenatally up to a month post-birth, with femoral length commonly used and other bones used to estimate femoral length and age.

Union of Primary Ossification Centers

Assessing the fusion of primary ossification centers to secondary centers, often using epiphyseal fusions and charts of data for age estimation.

Initial Treatment and Examination

The three main phases involving cleaning skeletal material, working with skeletal pieces, and inventorying and documenting findings.

Forensic Anthropology Laboratory

The necessary equipment and facilities in a forensic anthropology lab, including tools, a large sink, heating methods, and safety protocols.

Preparation of Remains

The process of removing soft tissue from remains, including steps like initial examination, bulk tissue removal, disarticulation, and residual tissue removal.

Reconstruction, Sorting, and Reassembly

Steps involving the reconstruction of damaged bones, separation of commingled remains, and laying out individual skeletons for further analysis.

Pubic Symphysis Surface

A method for estimating age based on changes in the pubic symphysis, focusing on features like the pubic face, ventral margin, dorsal margin, and ossific nodules.

Pelvic Bone Auricular Surface

A method for age estimation based on changes in the auricular surface of the pelvic bone, including features like billows, striations, and macroporosity.

Sternal Rib Ends

A method for estimating age from the sternal rib ends, considering changes in surface bone texture, surface contour, rim characteristics, and rim contour.

Suture Closure/Obliteration

Involves ranking the level of closure or obliteration for 10 cranial sutures using a scale from 0 (open) to 3 (obliterated).

Anthroposcopic Traits

Visual features assessed for the skull, ranked subjectively, and used to estimate probabilities for major ancestral groups.

Tooth Shape Differences

Tooth shape varies between populations with different genetic affinities, impacting forensic analysis.

Elasticity

Property of bone to deform and return to its original shape; influenced by collagen content.

Modulus of Elasticity

Ratio of stress to strain, affecting bone's ability to deform elastically.

Plasticity

Bone's ability to deform without returning to its original shape, influenced by internal composition.

Bone Trauma Categories

Include infraction, fracture, and displacement, each with distinct characteristics.

Types of Trauma

Blunt force, sharp force, projectile, and miscellaneous, each causing specific bone injuries.

Timing of Bone Injury

Premortem/antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem fractures, with different characteristics.

Size, Construction, Velocity

Factors affecting the effects of trauma on bone, including bullet size, composition, and speed.

Bullet Profiles

Sharp, blunt, and hollow-point, impacting the wound characteristics and severity.

Velocity

Speed at which a projectile hits a target, a crucial factor in the wounding power of a bullet.

Bullet Trajectory

Bullets spin in flight due to rifling, affecting the entry and exit wound characteristics.

Wound Characteristics

Include entry and exit wound shapes, beveling, and fracture lines, providing insights into the trauma's nature.

Butterfly Fractures

Lozenge-shaped fractures in long bones caused by various forces, including bullets or bending.

Blunt Force Trauma

Occurs when a force impacts bone over a wide area, causing damage, including falls and hard surface impacts.

Projectile

Any object that flies through the air, such as spears, arrows, shrapnel, or random objects during an explosion.

Bone Bruise

Also known as occult interosseous fracture, involves microfractures to trabecular bone, often caused by compression.

Torus

Also called buckling fracture, common in children's forearm bones, where the bone is compressed and buckles outwards.

Greenstick Fracture

An incomplete transverse fracture, common in children's bones, where the bone appears bent oddly.

LaFort Fractures

Classic patterns of facial fractures, including Type 1 where part of the maxilla breaks loose from the face.

Complete Fractures

Include transverse, oblique, spiral, comminuted, and epiphyseal fractures, each with distinct characteristics.

Sharp Force Trauma

Results from focused compressive forces, causing puncture, incision, or chopping wounds, with effects like hinging and bone chips.

Punctures

Gouging wounds caused by instruments like icepicks or knives, resulting in cone-shaped injuries with possible fracture lines.

Blast Trauma

Involves primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary components, affecting victims through pressure changes, projectiles, blunt force, and indirect effects of an explosion.

WWII Aircraft Crashes

Resulted in extensive fracturing and blunt force trauma, with different patterns of trauma for those in the plane versus those on the ground.

Three Causes of Death from Strangling

Hanging, ligature, and manual strangulation are distinct methods of causing death by restricting airflow or blood flow to the brain.

Hyoid Bone

Begins cartilaginous, ossifies with age, and can fracture under compression, with implications for determining strangulation.

Geneva Conventions 1949

Established rules for the treatment of prisoners of war, combat wounded, shipwrecked sailors, and civilians, building upon earlier agreements.

Nuremberg Trials

Held to try Nazi leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity, highlighting the need for updated international laws.

International Criminal Court (ICC)

Investigates and tries offenses in broader geographic areas, emphasizing the importance of evidence in successful trials.

Clyde Collins Snow

A forensic anthropologist known for his work on identifying victims in various mass disasters and testifying against offenders.

Framework for Trauma Analysis

Consists of demography, context, and intent to understand the circumstances and motives behind mass killings.

Wounded to Kill Ratio (W/K)

Used to analyze armed conflicts, with different ratios indicating conventional combat versus mass murders of unarmed people.

Extra-Judicial Killings

Killings by government agencies without a fair trial, as seen in cases like the Lima hostage crisis and the Cambodian Killing Fields.