Outline Shape Analysis on the Trochlear Constriction and Olecranon Fossa of the Humerus: Insights for Sex Estimation and a New Computational Tool,

Saskia Ammer*, João d'Oliveira Coelho, Eugénia Maria Cunha

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Sex estimation through visual analysis of the distal humerus can contribute to establishing the biological profile of an unidentified skeletal individual. Using statistical shape modeling, the trochlear constriction open curves and olecranon fossa closed outlines of 151 humeri were digitized and analyzed. The shape configurations exhibited strikingly different degrees of sexual dimorphism when evaluated using linear discriminant analysis with leave-one-out cross-validation. The trochlear constriction performed poorly, correctly classifying 63.6% of the individuals. However, the olecranon fossa showed high sexual dimorphism, presenting a 94.0% accuracy. A simpler model using only two principal components was also generated. While the accuracy is slightly inferior (88.1%), it has the advantage of being constrained to bidimensional components that were translated into morphoscopic variables within a simulator interface. This allowed us to implement the method through a web application that does not require users to be trained in landmark digitization or have knowledge of geometric morphometrics.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1788-1795
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Forensic Sciences
Volume64
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • distal humerus
  • forensic anthropology
  • forensic science
  • outline shape analysis
  • sex estimation
  • web application

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