Osteology: Estimating Femur Length from the Diameter of the Femoral Shaft
School of Biological & Earth Sciences
BIEGN3005 Honours Project
March 2010
Student name: Stephen Dempsey
Supervisor name: Professor Alan Turner
Estimating femur length from the diameter of the femoral shaft
Stephen Dempsey
BIEGN300 Honours Project
Person Number: 343106
Submission Date: 5th March 2010
Abstract
Bone lengths can be used to provide stature estimations in case of unidentified skeletal remains, an important tool in forensic and bioarchaelogical cases. Where the bones are broken or fragmented, regression equations can be used to estimate total bone length from its fragments, which in turn can be used to estimate stature. The aim of this study was to test 2 new measurements of the femoral shaft to see if they could be used as predictors of maximum femoral length. The minimum transverse femoral shaft diameter and the minimum anterior-posterior femoral shaft where measured on a small sample of an archaeological population from Poulton, Cheshire, along with the maximum femur length for each sample.
Simple linear regression analysis was performed and the results showed that the minimum transverse femoral shaft diameter correlated significantly in both males (R2=.635, p=0.006) and females (R2=0.88, p=≤0.001) with maximum femur length. The minimum anterior-posterior femoral shaft diameter showed no significant correlation with maximum femur length. Subsequently, regression equations were presented for the significant correlations. Further research is needed to validate the results and to improve the accuracy of the method.
1. Introduction
The role of a forensic anthropologist in forensic and archaeological cases is to establish demographics (population affinity, age, sex and stature), time since death and cause of death from an individual’s remains (Chibba et al, 2006). The use of stature as a biological characteristic of identity can significantly contribute to the identification of unknown skeletal remains. Numerous
BIEGN3005 Honours Project
March 2010
Student name: Stephen Dempsey
Supervisor name: Professor Alan Turner
Estimating femur length from the diameter of the femoral shaft
Stephen Dempsey
BIEGN300 Honours Project
Person Number: 343106
Submission Date: 5th March 2010
Abstract
Bone lengths can be used to provide stature estimations in case of unidentified skeletal remains, an important tool in forensic and bioarchaelogical cases. Where the bones are broken or fragmented, regression equations can be used to estimate total bone length from its fragments, which in turn can be used to estimate stature. The aim of this study was to test 2 new measurements of the femoral shaft to see if they could be used as predictors of maximum femoral length. The minimum transverse femoral shaft diameter and the minimum anterior-posterior femoral shaft where measured on a small sample of an archaeological population from Poulton, Cheshire, along with the maximum femur length for each sample.
Simple linear regression analysis was performed and the results showed that the minimum transverse femoral shaft diameter correlated significantly in both males (R2=.635, p=0.006) and females (R2=0.88, p=≤0.001) with maximum femur length. The minimum anterior-posterior femoral shaft diameter showed no significant correlation with maximum femur length. Subsequently, regression equations were presented for the significant correlations. Further research is needed to validate the results and to improve the accuracy of the method.
1. Introduction
The role of a forensic anthropologist in forensic and archaeological cases is to establish demographics (population affinity, age, sex and stature), time since death and cause of death from an individual’s remains (Chibba et al, 2006). The use of stature as a biological characteristic of identity can significantly contribute to the identification of unknown skeletal remains. Numerous
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