Evaluation of morphological sex determinations by molecular analyses.
The study presents an evaluation of morphological sex determinations of adult skeletal individuals based on traits of the ossa coxae and the cranium. The evaluation criterion was genetic analysis of the amelogenine gene, which represents parts of the X- and the Y-chromosome (Mannucci et al. 1994). The study was carried out on 33 human skeletons from an early modern burial site in Lower Saxony. In this skeletal series, 88% of the morphological sex determinations matched the genetic sex. The percentage of matches was further improved, if only those morphological determinations were taken into account that were classified as unambiguous by a self-evaluation. In the reverse case, a significant number of non-matching determinations (33%) resulted from those cases in which a sex determination still seemed possible but was classified as "ambiguous" in the self-evaluation. At least within this skeletal series, no clear connection could be detected between the number of matching results and the presence or absence of the ossa coxae. This might be due to a strong cranial dimorphism within this particular skeletal series.
Hummel
S
S
Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Göttingen. shummel1@gwdg.de
Bramanti
B
B
Finke
T
T
Herrmann
B
B
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D049711:History, Modern 1601-; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010164:Paleopathology; D019849:Sex Determination Processes; D014960:X Chromosome; D014998:Y Chromosome