5 research outputs found
Multidisciplinary approach to the forensic identification of a late discovery victim of a motorcycle accident
This paper presents a case of a late discovery of a motorcycle accident victim. The fact that the remains were almost skeletonized required the input of several disciplines in order to identify the victim. Therefore, anthropology, odontology, facial reconstruction, and genetics were employed. It was found that the victim was male, between the ages of 35 to 55 with a number of healed fractures. In addition, perimortem trauma with a pattern that was consistent with a motorcycle accident was found in the head and upper body regions. Dental findings included a tooth out of alignment with the rest of the dental arcade, as well as a heavily decayed tooth that was replaced by a dental bridge. Both of these findings were supported by ante mortem photographs of the victim. A two-dimensional facial reconstruction was carried out and produced a very good likeness of the deceased. The above findings were confirmed by DNA analysis that matched a bone sample to those of the family of the deceased. This case illustrates the benefits of combining several different methods to make an initial assessment of a case and narrow the list of potential candidates. This can help speed up the process of identification and save resources for law enforcement agencies
Dental metric standards for sex estimation in archaeological populations from Iran
Sex estimation of skeletal remains is one of the major components of forensic
identification of unknown individuals. Teeth are a potential source of information on
sex and are often recovered in archaeological or forensic contexts due to their post-mortem
longevity. Currently there is limited data on dental sexual dimorphism of
archaeological populations from Iran. This dissertation represents the first study to
provide a dental sex estimation method for Iron Age populations.
The current study was conducted on the skeletal remains of 143 adults from two Iron
Age populations in close temporal and geographic proximity in the Solduz Valley
(West Azerbaijan Province of Iran). 2D and 3D cervical mesiodistal and buccolingual
and root volume measurements of maxillary and mandibular teeth were used to
investigate the degree of sexual dimorphism in permanent dentition and to assess their
applicability in sex estimation. In total 1327, 457, and 480 anterior and posterior teeth
were used to collect 2D cervical, 3D cervical, and root volume measurements
respectively. 2D cervical measurements were taken using Hillson-Fitzgerald dental
calliper and 3D measurements were collected using CT images provided by Open
Research Scan Archive (ORSA) - Penn Museum. 3D models of the teeth were created
using manual segmentation in the Amira 6.01 software package. Since tooth density
largely differs from crown to apex, root segmentation required two threshold levels:
the segmentation of the root from the jaw and the segmentation of the crown from the
root. Thresholds used for root segmentation were calculated using the half maximum
height protocol of Spoor et al. (1993) for each skull, and thresholds used for crown
segmentation were set visually for each tooth separately. Data was analysed using
discriminant function analysis and posterior probabilities were calculated for all
produced formulae where sex was previously assessed from morphological features of
pelvis and skull. Bootstrapping was used to account for small sample sizes in the
analysis. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS 23. The percentage of sexual
dimorphism was also used to quantify the amount of sexual dimorphism in the sample.
The results showed that incisors and canines were the most sexually dimorphic teeth,
providing percentages of correct sex classification between 80% and 100% depending
on the measurement used. Root volume measurement was shown to be the most
sexually dimorphic variable providing an accuracy of over 90% in all functions.
The present study provided the first dental metric standards for sex estimation using
odontometric data in Iranian archaeological populations. Dental measurements,
particularly root volume measurements, were found to be of value for sex assessment
and the method presented here could be a useful tool for establishing accurate
demographic data from skeletal remains of the Iron Age from Iran