The construction of sex discriminant functions from a large collection of skulls of known sex

Abstract The suitability of the large collection of skulls of known sex (n?=357, n?=213), housed in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Coimbra, as a reference series for sex diagnosis from skulls, was investigated. This was done by calculating estimates for the maximum actual discriminatory value for samples being diagnosed. here called Dt max. The estimates for this statistic were found to be relatively low. Depending on the estimation procedure used, values of 1.68 and 1.64, were obtained, which correspond with theoretical percentages of correct classification of 79.8 and 79.3, respectively. An attempt was then made to investigate whether the low level of sexual dimorphism was due to heterogeneity in the series, which was therefore partitioned into Northern, Central and Southern groups according to place of birth. Only in the Southern group was the level of sexual dimorphism found to be slightly higher than in the whole series. The need for large well documented reference series for deriving techniques for sex determination from the skull and other skeletal elements is discussed and an extensive description of the methods emploved in this study is given