Spheno -Occipital Synchondrosis for the estimation of age in a Forensic Context : A preliminary case series study on a sample of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction- It is evident that there are numerous approaches employed by many different researchers to ascertain the age of the unknown. Among those, the examination of the spheno- occipital synchondrosis has also been an area of focus by both forensic scientists as well as anatomists. However, despite many number of studies available in the literature for many different other populations, for Sri Lanka, up to now there are no published studies using spheno- occipital synchondrosis as a marker to estimate the age of an individual. Aim- This study therefore aims at obtaining a crude idea about the ages at which the spheno-­ occipital joint completes among a Sri Lankan sample. As the available literature does not cover Sri Lankan Sinhalese adults, the results of this case series evaluation will undoubtedly provide a forensic practitioner a rough idea regarding the chronological ages at which the fusion occurs at the joint. Methods- Twenty one Sinhalese male skulls and eleven Sinhalese female skulls collected over the years for anatomical and autopsy purposes whose ages were known and ranged between twenty years to sixty five years were examined for this study using the method described by Moore and Jenson et al. Results and Conclusion- With the preliminary findings it is evident that the spheno- occipital synchondrosis of Sinhalese are fused at the age of 20 or above when evaluated ectocranially under naked eye. However, this may be a crude opinion where a larger representative sample needs to be studied prior to generalising the age of fusion