Forensic Anthropology

Types of Specializations

• Within forensic anthropology, individuals can choose to specialize in archaeology or physical anthropology.
  • Archeology involves finding and recovering the remains.
  • Physical anthropology is the process of determining what the bones are.
  • For instance, physical anthropologists will look at the charts that display typical human bone growth to determine if the remains are human.

Most Important Human Bones

• Within our body, there are a few distinctive bone structures that, if recovered, forensic anthropologists can conclude the remains are human.
  • These bones include the cranium, the pelvis, the scapula, and the humerus and femur.
  • The human skull consists of a small jaw, small teeth, and forward facing eyes which is unique to humans.
  • As humans stand upright on two legs, our pelvic bone differs among animals.
  • The scapula, otherwise known as the shoulder blade, fits flat over our back and has a unique axe head shape, which most other animals do not have.
  • A human’s humerus and femur bones house a ball joint.

Determining Age

Bone Fusion

• Humans are born with approximately 405 "ossification centers” which is where cartilage starts to form.
  • The fusion of the ossification centers will result in 206 adult bones.
  • Through fusion, a doctor can use a fusion chart which shows when the bone will start to fuse and when they are done. This allows for one’s age to be determined.

Hands

• A human’s hand has a lot of tiny bones compared to the rest of one’s body
  • This allows for age determination to be easy at a young age as there are many ossification centers within our hands
  • The older one is, the less reliable hand determination will be.

Elderly Individuals

• Instead of looking at the rate of development, one must look at the rate of deterioration for elderly
  • The first place to look is one’s skull.
  • Within the skull, there is cranial suture scoring. This is the process of our skull filling in sutures with bone instead of cartilage.
  • The next place to look is one’s sternal rib ends.
  • As one gets older, their cartilage will become rougher. This causes rib endings to deteriorate as they rub against the rough cartilage.
  • Finally, an older person’s age can be determined through pubic symphysis.
  • Pubic symphysis is the joint where the front halves of the pelvis come together
    • An age range can be determined through the state the pubic symphysis is in.
    • As the inner faces rub against each other, the tissue slowly deteriorates.

Sexual Dimorphism

• Male and female bodies have structural differences within their skeletons
  • In regards to the pelvis,
  • Males tend to have a v-shaped subpubic angle along with a narrow inlet and sciatic notch.
  • Females tend to have a u-shaped subpubic angle with a round inlet and a wide sciatic notch.
  • Concerning the skull,
  • Males tend to have larger mastoid processes, a larger jaw line, and more defined brow ridges.
  • Females have smaller mastoid processes, and a smoother frontal bone.

Race

• While not 100% accurate, forensic anthropologists can also determine one’s race based upon their remains.
  • Anthropologists will look at eye orbits shape, cheekbone shape, nasal bone shape, and if a prognathiasm is present

Groups

• Forensic anthropologists divide race into three groups; European, Asian, and African.

European

• European individuals tend to have an eye orbit shape that resembles aviator glasses. This means that the top of the structure is rectangular with the bottom being more circular.
• The cheekbone structure tends to be high and forward facing.
• Nasal bone structure tends to be skinner and more oval compared to the other anthropologic races.
• Prognathiasm is absent

Asian

• The eye orbit structure tends to be more circular compared to European and African descent.
• As with Europeans, cheekbone structure tends to be high and forward facing.
• Nasal bone structure tends to be more rectangular
• Prognathiasm is absent

African

• The eye orbits tend to be more rectangular.
• The cheekbone structure tends to be anteriorly projecting.
• The nasal bone structure tends to be smaller and more circular.
• Prognathisam is present. This is when the top jaw sticks out a little farther than the bottom jaw.

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