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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.