Sex determination using proximal hand phalanges

Authors

  • Fotios Alexandros Karakostis Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironments, Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen
  • Eleni Zorba Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Athens
  • Konstantinos Moraitis Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, School of Medicine, University of Athens

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12697/poa.2015.24.2.04

Keywords:

forensic anthropology, sex determination, hand phalanges, Athens collection

Abstract

Sex determination is among the most important biological data to be obtained from human skeletal remains. In anthropological sciences, the applied methodology involves the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of skeletal parts. Measurements of proximal hand phalanges have been shown to exhibit prominent sexual dimorphism, in different populations examined. The aim of this study is to assess the utility of proximal hand phalanges for the sex diagnosis and develop a discriminant formula to be applied to Modern Greek populations. The material utilized consists of 661 proximal hand phalanges (left and right) from the Athens Collection, corresponding to 160 adult individuals (86 males and 74 females). Classification accuracies ranged between 94.6% and 100% for left and between 87.7% and 100% for right proximal phalanges. The results of this study indicate that proximal hand phalanges can be used for accurate sex diagnosis.

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Published

2015-10-21

Issue

Section

Articles