Palatine sutures as age indicator: a controlled study in the elderly.
Vault sutures have proven their low reliability for estimating age at death in individual forensic science cases. We broke down the palatine sutures of 134 skulls (with known sex and age at time of death) into 15 subparts and 5 stages of fusion to obtain a mean coefficient of obliteration (Cp) which was then linked to five age classes. We completed this study with multiple regression equations of total palatine suture scores. We compared our results with those obtained using the Mann method on the one hand and classically segmented and scored ectocranial suture age determination methods on the other. Palatine sutures generally do not estimate age at death any better than cranial vault sutures. Despite the partly subjective aspect of suture study, palatine suture observation contributes additional information to age-range estimation, especially in old and very old subjects where other methods lose their effectiveness.
Beauthier
Jean-Pol
JP
Medico-Legal Laboratory and Forensic Anthropology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Campus Erasme CP 629, Lennik Street 808, Brussels B 1070, Belgium. jean-pol.beauthier@ulb.ac.be
Lefevre
Philippe
P
Meunier
Maurice
M
Orban
Rosine
R
Polet
Caroline
C
Werquin
Jean-Pierre
JP
Quatrehomme
Gérald
G
D000328:Adult; D000365:Age Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003393:Cranial Sutures / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021362:Palate, Hard / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D055815:Young Adult