Morphometrics of the hyoid bone for human sex determination from digital photographs

Abstract

The identification of unknown remains is very important. When unknown remains are found, anthropologists first determine their sex and age. The sex of most skeletons is determined by their shape. In the hyoid bone, the shape is sex related, so it can be used forensically to determine the sex. This study focused on sex-based morphometry of the hyoid bone in Koreans using digital photographs. Hyoid bones from 52 males and 33 females were examined. For each subject, we took 34 measurements from photographs using a computer program, and the data were analyzed statistically using SPSS 11.0. Twenty-one of 34 measurements had significant sex differences (p<0.05). The discriminant functions based on three measurements (X 1-X 3) were as follows: The accuracy of discriminant functions is 88.2% in both groups, so these can be used to distinguish males from females in a statistically significant manner. Copyright © 2006 by American Academy of Forensic Sciences.