Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Anthropology• Definition: An applied area of

physical anthropology

• Role: To assist law enforcement agencies in a medico legal context

General Goals• 1. Establish biological profile: age,

sex, race, height• 2. Determine time since death

– (PMI- post mortem interval)

• 3. Examine remains for signs of trauma• 4. Establish positive identity

Who do they work with?• Police Departments• Sheriff’s Offices• Office of the Attorney General• Coroner’s offices• FBI• ATF• Private individuals

Estimating Age• Skull features

• Dentition

• Epiphysial fusion of long bones

Skull Features…• The cranium (the skull minus the

lower jaw bone, or mandible)

• consists of 28 bones. (6 unpaired bone, and 8 paired bones, plus 3 ear bones on each side)

• Some bones are paired, which means there is a left and right one, and some bones are unpaired, meaning there is just one.

• Neonate – Newborn = first 28 days after birth• The mandible is more commonly known as the lower jaw bone. • It is the strongest bone of the face • The mandible is two separate bones (left and right) that fuse together to

form one bone.

DENTITION• Teeth can be divided into maxillary (upper) and

mandibular (lower)

• There are four different categories of teeth: incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.

• Adults will usually have a total of 32 teeth. 

• The function of each tooth is different.  Incisors are designed for cutting, canines are pointed for tearing, and premolars and molars are designed for grinding and reducing food.

The Hyoid• Small, horn-shaped bone that supports the

tongue, and gives attachment to many muscles in speech.

• This bone is of particular interest to forensic anthropologists as it is commonly broken in cases of strangulation.

• Unfused hyphoid. This fuses at about 35 years of age.

Long Bones• Humerus - your upper arm

bone

• Ulna/Radius - your lower arm bones

• Femur – your thigh bone. It is the largest of all bones

• Tibia & Fibula - two bones that make up your lower leg– tibia is known as the shin bone,

and it is the second largest bone in the body

Radius & UlnaHumerus

FEMUR Fibula & Tibia

Determining Sex

• Skull features• Pelvic Bone Characteristics

• Analysis of Femur

• Dentition

A baby's skeleton has 350 bones, but many of these fuse to give an adult a total of 206 bones.  A man's skeleton has broader shoulders than a woman's, a longer ribcage, and a pelvic girdle for walking/running.  A woman's skeleton has the same bone complement as a man's but is slightly smaller and less robust, with a wider pelvic opening to assist childbirth.

Skull Features

FEATURE MEN WOMEN

Cranial Mass Blocky & MassiveDeeper

Rounder & Tapers at the Top

Brow Ridge Margin is rounder & dull Margin is sharper

Zygomatic Bone More Pronounced Less Pronounced

Mandible (lower jaw)

Square Shaped Rounded Shape

Supercilary Arch More Pronounced & larger

Less Pronounced & smaller

Pelvic Bone Characteristics• The innominate bones

are irregular in shape– AKA: Hip Bone– the large bone in the hip,

consisting of the ilium, the ischium, and the pubic bone.

• They are the best means of determining the SEX of a skeleton

FEMALE MALE

Analysis of the Femur

• Typically longer in men

• Women’s bones stop developing around 18

• Men’s bones develop until about 21

• Men have more bone mass

Determining Race• Caucasoid characteristics: Oval eye orbits, Narrow

nasal opening

• Negroid characteristics: square eye orbit, greater breadth at nose, protruding teeth

• Mongoloid: in between the two. Native Americans have “shoveled” teeth.

RACE IS THE HARDEST TO IDENTIFY

Caucasoid

American Negroid

Native American

Determining Time Since Death• Decay of epidermis

and/or skeleton• Articulation & scattering of remains

• Material Remains??•Clothing•Objects

Postmortem Interval - PMI• Antemortem trauma: Before death• Perimortem trauma: at or around the

time of death• Post mortem trauma: after death

Femur with animal chew marks on either end

Cause of Death• Can be homicide, suicide, accidental, natural, and unknown

• Easier with a fleshed body and often very difficult with flesh and organs gone

• Look for things like depressions and indentations caused by blunt trauma, lead fragments, etc.