Morphometrics of the hyoid bone for human sex determination from digital photographs.
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.
Kim
Deog-Im
DI
Department of Anatomy, Catholic Institute for Applied Anatomy, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137701, Korea.
Lee
U-Young
UY
Park
Dae-Kyoon
DK
Kim
Yi-Suk
YS
Han
Ki-Hwan
KH
Kim
Kwang-Hoon
KH
Han
Seung-Ho
SH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D006928:Hyoid Bone / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010781:Photography; D012727:Sex Characteristics