title: Significance of temporal changes on sexual dimorphism of cranial measurements of Indian population.
abstract: Revision of discriminant function formulae has always been advocated by anthropologist to take into account the changing pattern of sexual dimorphism due to temporal/secular changes. The present study aims to track temporal changes in cranial measurements of temporally distinct North Indian population and providing updated sex discriminating formulae. A total of 483 adult (20-65 years) crania representing contemporary and sub-recent populations collected from two medical colleges in North India. A total of 11 variables were measured to observe the changes in cranial dimension over time. Analysis of data demonstrated significant sexual and population (contemporary vs sub-recent sample) variations over time. The contemporary males and females exhibited larger cranial dimensions but it expressed less dimorphism than their predecessors. A trend toward brachycephalization was also observed in contemporary females. Maximum cranial length (84%) and biauricular breadth (79%) represent the most dimorphic variables for contemporary and sub-recent sample, respectively. The possible causes of such variations are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, Varanasi 221005, India. Electronic address: vineetasaini2012@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Vineeta
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Saini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D012886:Skull / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cranial measurements; Discriminant function analysis; Forensic Anthropology Population Data; Sexual dimorphism; Temporal changes