Article2015

An evaluation of sex‐ and ancestry‐specific variation in sacral size and shape using geometric morphometrics

23 citations0/0 files storedAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology

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Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology Morphological variations and asymmetry

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Sex estimation using the human sacrum has primarily been limited to the use of non-statistical, visual observations of sacral size and shape with no quantifiable measure of certainty. Qualitative sex estimates rely primarily on generalizations of two aspects of sacral morphology: dorso-ventral curvature and the S1/alae breadth ratio. Additionally, the use of sacral morphology for ancestry estimation has largely been ignored. The goals of this study are to detail sex- and ancestry-specific variation in sacral form using geometric morphometrics and to evaluate the contributions of dorso-ventral curvature and the S1/alae breadth ratio to such variation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five sacral landmarks were digitized from a sample of 201 human individuals of known sex, age, and ancestry at the Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection. Three-dimensional coordinate data were used to calculate independent measures of shape and size using generalized Procrustes analysis. We computed discriminant functions using two configurations of Procrustes coordinates, representing disparate aspects of sacral morphology, centroid size, and interlandmark distances to evaluate the classification potential of each dataset. RESULTS: Cross-validated classification accuracies ranged from 60.2 to 98.0% for sex estimation and 60.0 to 95.8% for ancestry estimation depending on the variables and aspects of sacral morphology represented by each dataset. Our results confirm the important role of the S1/alae breadth ratio for sex estimation, while dorso-ventral curvature shows more utility in estimating ancestry than sex, contrary to traditional use. DISCUSSION: Sex estimations based on vague, "eyeballed" observations ignore the amount of variation within sexes and may produce incorrect estimates.

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References

1969A newly developed visual method of sexing the os pubis 1987Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual 2008Sexing skulls using discriminant function analysis of visually assessed traits 2012A revised method of sexing the human innominate using Phenice's nonmetric traits and statistical methods 1994Accuracy of Sex Determination Using Morphological Traits of the Human Pelvis 1989Hamann‐Todd collection aging studies: Osteoporosis fracture syndrome 1978Univariate and multivariate methods for sexing the sacrum 1982A Base-Wing Index for Sexing the Sacrum

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2022Machine learning and discriminant function analysis in the formulation of generic models for sex prediction using patella measurements 2018Dimensions around the nutrient foramina of the tibia and fibula in the estimation of sex 2018Sex determination in a Spanish population based on sacrum 2022Sex classification using the human sacrum: Geometric morphometrics versus conventional approaches 2022Ancestry Estimation: Advances and Limitations in Forensic Applications

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