Can the fibula determine sex?: Osteometric analysis around the nutrient foramen

The estimation of sex is an essential component of osteoarchaeology. Comprehending the biological sex of individuals is crucial for piecing together their lives, interactions with environments, and identities. Sex estimation is the initial stage in determining the biological identification of a skeleton since the results form the basis for applying subsequent identifying techniques. Three methods are available for estimating sex. Specifically, the use of DNA techniques, metric analysis, or visual evaluation. The purpose of this thesis is to suggest a technique for Dutch populations to ascertain an individual's biological sex just from the dimensions of the fibula. This study aims to evaluate the sexual estimation approach in a Dutch population by reproducing the method of Fasemore et al. (2018). Four distinct measures around the nutrient foramen serve as the foundation for this research: the proximal end to the nutrient foramen, the circumference at the nutrient foramen, the medio...Show moreThe estimation of sex is an essential component of osteoarchaeology. Comprehending the biological sex of individuals is crucial for piecing together their lives, interactions with environments, and identities. Sex estimation is the initial stage in determining the biological identification of a skeleton since the results form the basis for applying subsequent identifying techniques. Three methods are available for estimating sex. Specifically, the use of DNA techniques, metric analysis, or visual evaluation. The purpose of this thesis is to suggest a technique for Dutch populations to ascertain an individual's biological sex just from the dimensions of the fibula. This study aims to evaluate the sexual estimation approach in a Dutch population by reproducing the method of Fasemore et al. (2018). Four distinct measures around the nutrient foramen serve as the foundation for this research: the proximal end to the nutrient foramen, the circumference at the nutrient foramen, the medio lateral and the postero-anterior diameters around the nutrient foramen. In all measurements, there were statistically significant differences between male and female, according to the findings of the independent t-test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The proximal end to the nutrient foramen was the least sexually dimorphic, since all the measurements had a significance of 0.001, while PENF_L had a value of 0.21. The three functions created had accuracies ranging between 71.1% and 73.6%. The left and right combined measurements resulted in the most accurate discriminant function.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Can the fibula determine sex? Osteometric analysis around the nutrient foramen