Forensic Anthropology

PURPOSE: The preserved head of King Henri IV of France (life 1553-1610, reign 1589-1610) has survived to the present day thanks to high-quality embalming and favorable conservation conditions. The aim of this study was to examine Henry IV's upper resonant cavities and mastoids using an original and innovative forensic three-dimensional segmentation method. METHODS: The paranasal sinuses and mastoid cells of King Henri IV of France were studied by cross-referencing available biographical information with clinical and flexible endoscopic examination and computed tomography (CT-scan) imaging...

To date South African forensic anthropologists are only able to successfully apply a metric approach to estimate population affinity when constructing a biological profile from skeletal remains. While a non-metric, or macromorphoscopic approach exists, limited research has been conducted to explore its use in a South African population. This study aimed to explore 17 cranial macromorphoscopic traits to develop improved methodology for the estimation of population affinity among black, white and coloured South Africans and for the method to be compliant with standards of best practice...

Chile had a violent military coup (1973-1990) that resulted in 3,000 victims declared detained, missing or killed; many are still missing and unidentified. Currently, the Human Rights Unit of the Forensic Medical Service in Chile applies globally recognised forensic anthropological approaches, but many of these methods have not been validated in a Chilean sample. As current research has demonstrated population-specificity with extant methods, the present study aims to validate sex estimation methods in a Chilean population and thereafter establish population-specific equations...

In forensic anthropology, osteological sex estimation methods are continuously reevaluated and updated to improve classification accuracies. Therefore, to gain a comprehensive understanding of recent trends in sex estimation research in forensic anthropology, a content analysis of articles published between 2000 and 2022 in Forensic Science International, the Journal of Forensic Sciences, the International Journal of Legal Medicine, the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, and Forensic Anthropology, was performed...

OBJECTIVE: Crown dimensions data of deciduous teeth hold anthropological, forensic, and archaeological value. However, such information remains scarce for the Chinese population. This multi-center study aimed to collect a large sample of deciduous crown data from Chinese children using three-dimensional measurement methods and to analyze their dimensions. DESIGN: A total of 1592 children's deciduous dentition samples were included, and the sample size was distributed according to Northeast, North, East, Northwest, Southwest and South China...

Aim This study aims to examine five mandibular parameters: coronoid ramus height, condylar ramus height, projective ramus height, minimum ramus breadth, and gonial angle, using orthopantomography (OPG). Introduction The mandible, a crucial part of the human skull, demonstrates sexual dimorphism, which makes it an important tool for determining sex in forensic and anthropological investigations. Its form and structure are relatively resistant to significant changes after death. Among all skeletal components, the mandible stands out as a primary indicator of sexual differences...

OBJECTIVE: To study emergence mechanism, physical nature, pattern of intravital and postmortem changes of biological and non-biological objects originated in the period from 1550 to 1918 yr. using traditional X-ray and X-ray computed tomography. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The relics of Saint Macarius the Roman of Novgorod, the remains of the First Reverend of the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent in Saint Petersburg Mother Superior Theophania, damages on the chair leg on which Tsesarevich Alexey sat during the shooting of Russian Emperor Nicholas II, his family and entourage in 1918 in Yekaterinburg were stidued...

Northeastern Thailand comprises one-third of the country and is home to various populations, with Lao Isan constituting the majority, while others are considered minority groups. Previous studies on forensic short tandem repeats (STRs) in Thailand predominantly focused on autosomal STRs but there was a paucity of X-STRs, exclusively reported from the North and Central regions of the country. In this study, we have newly established a 12 X-STRs from a total of 896 samples from Northeastern Thailand, encompassing Lao Isan as the major group in the region, alongside nine minor populations (Khmer, Mon, Nyahkur, Bru, Kuy, Phutai, Kalueang, Nyaw, and Saek)...

Cause of death is defined as a natural disease or injury that led to physiologic changes resulting in death. Manner of death refers to the circumstances surrounding death. Decomposition, especially in advanced stages, creates difficulties in post-mortem examination for it encompasses the processes that lead to the loss of important observable findings and features. Traumatic injuries observed in decomposed cadavers might be analyzed by their vital features and significance for the occurrence of fatal outcomes that help determine the cause and manner of death...

BACKGROUND: Previously, a novel multiplex system of 64 loci was constructed based on capillary electrophoresis platform, including 59 autosomal insertion/deletions (A-InDels), two Y-chromosome InDels, two mini short tandem repeats (miniSTRs), and an Amelogenin gene. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficiencies of this multiplex system for individual identification, paternity testing and biogeographic ancestry inference in Chinese Hezhou Han (CHH) and Hubei Tujia (CTH) groups, providing valuable insights for forensic anthropology and population genetics research...

Anthropologists have led the way in formulating techniques that reveal skeletal differences between males and females. Understanding of physical differences in the pelvis related to childbirth, hormonal impacts on bones, and extensive comparative studies have provided anthropologists with an array of traits and measurements that help them estimate sex using just bones. Forensic anthropologists and bioarcheologists are improving their ability to differentiate males and females by increasing research on a variety of postcranial bones and through the use of molecular data, especially new methods called proteomics, to identify sex in prepubescent juveniles...

The present anthropometric study was designed to construct data of 5-10 years aged Bangladeshi children regarding foot breadth and an attempt has been made out to grow interest among the researchers for future study and also to compare the data with the data of the people of other races. This cross-sectional, descriptive and analytic type study was conducted among 5-10 years aged 109 Bangladeshi children (70 male and 39 female) at different areas of Mymensingh district (Fulpur, Muktagacha, Fulbaria, Trisal and Haluaghat), Bangladesh from January 2016 to December 2016...

The field of forensic anthropology is characterised by its ongoing development and growth. Forensic anatomy is a burgeoning discipline that focuses on the analysis and identification of both preserved and unpreserved human body parts, both in deceased individuals and the living. This subject plays a crucial role in establishing the four key factors of forensic anthropology, namely sex, age, race, and height. The objective of this research endeavour was to evaluate the significance of anatomical information in the process of forensic age estimation...

Teeth are considered unique as fingerprints for identification purposes. Their structure and resilience mean they can remain for thousands and millions of years withstanding extreme conditions, including burning. During burning, bones undergo carbonization at approximately 400°C and calcination at approximately 700°C. This study aimed to investigate the effects of carbonization and calcination on dental tissue. It involved nondestructive analyses of 58 extracted human teeth before and after burning, using x-ray diffraction, micro-CT, and high-resolution confocal microscopy...

UNLABELLED: A bibliometric analysis was performed to explore the current research status and development trends for missing persons globally and in East Asia and to identify research hotspots and frontiers relating to this topic. A search was conducted to identify relevant literature on missing persons using the Web of Science Core Collection database for the period 2000-2021. Subsequently, a knowledge map was constructed using CiteSpace software to perform a visual analysis of the distribution of authors and institutions, journals, and national/regional distribution; citation frequency; high-frequency keywords; and emerging research hotspots...

In October 2022, the Centre for Ethics of Yenepoya University hosted a national workshop entitled: "Respect for human dignity of the unidentified dead from mass disasters and other violence: strategies for the ethical management of biological samples and personal data". The aim was to explore and share experience and ethical considerations regarding the management and identification of human remains in the event of disasters, with the purpose to arrive at a general consensus about what constitutes the ethical foundation of the management of unidentified human remains in forensic practice and, in particular, contextualizing this in India...

An increasing number of software tools can be used in forensic anthropology to estimate a biological profile, but further studies in other populations are required for more robust validation. The present study aimed to evaluate the validity of MorphoPASSE software for sex estimation from sexually dimorphic cranial traits recorded on 3D CT models (n = 180) from three populations samples (Czech, French, and Egyptian). Two independent observers performed scoring of 4 cranial traits (2 of them bilateral) in each population sample of 30 males and 30 females...

Recent research observed 92% accuracy for age-at-death estimations by U.S. forensic anthropologists. The present study compares this case report level accuracy to method level accuracy for the most commonly used methods in U.S. casework, drawing from the Forensic Anthropology Database for Assessing Methods Accuracy (FADAMA). Method application rate (i.e., how often a method is used in casework) was analyzed for n = 641 cases and identified 15 methods with an application rate >45 cases, and the present study focused further analyses on these 15 methods...

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global human rights issue that affects approximately 25% of women and 10% of men and is the leading cause of homicides of women worldwide. Multiple interventional studies have been conducted to screen for IPV; however, fractures associated with intimate partner homicide (IPH) have not been studied from a forensic anthropological perspective. Therefore, this study uses computed tomography scans of IPH victims (n=33) obtained from the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator to 1) classify and quantify perimortem craniofacial blunt force fractures, and 2) compare the IPH-related fractures to those associated with non-lethal IPV using previously published studies...

Forensic anthropologists are often confronted with human remains that have been damaged due to trauma, fire, or postmortem taphonomic alteration, frequently resulting in the fracture and fragmentation of skeletal elements. The augmented reality (AR) technology introduced in this paper builds on familiar 3D visualization methods and utilizes them to make three dimensional holographic meshes of skeletal fragments that can be manipulated, tagged, and examined by the user. Here, CT scans, neural radiance fields (NeRF) artificial intelligence software, and Unreal Engine production software are utilized to construct a three-dimensional holographic image that can be manipulated with HoloLens™ technology to analyze the fracture margin and reconstruct craniofacial elements without causing damage to fragile remains via excessive handling...