title: Testing the effectiveness of two cranial base foramina for metric sex assessment of fragmentary remains.
abstract: Sex differences in linear and area dimensions of the foramen ovale and external opening of the carotid canal were analyzed in a documented French sample (35 men and 32 women). The results demonstrated that a low level of sexual dimorphism is present in the cranial base foramina of this sample, with only two-thirds of the examined variables exhibiting statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the sexes. The cross-validated sex classification accuracy rates obtained for univariate and multivariate discriminant functions ranged from only 54.7 to 72.1%. In addition, measurements of the cranial base foramina were found to be difficult to record with precision, with intra-observer error percentages ranging from 2.35 to 4.23%. Error rates of this magnitude may result in the misallocation of specimens. Therefore, osteometric analysis of the foramen ovale and carotid canal external opening cannot be recommended as a useful method for cranial sex assessment in this population group.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University (SUNY), Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA. p.james.macaluso@hotmail.com
authors.forename: P James
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Macaluso
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*; D019291:Skull Base / Q000033:anatomy & histology*