Ear morphology and morphometry as potential forensic tools for identification of the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba populations of Nigeria

Background The human external ear is unique in every individual in terms of shape, size and dimension making it suitable in forensic anthropology for sex estimation and personal identification purposes. The study aimed to evaluate sexual dimorphism and ethnic specificity of the external ear in major Nigerian ethnic populations. Results There was variation in the morphological features of the external ear of the sampled subjects. The external ear features vary in the right and left ears in both sexes of the ethnic groups. All variables were statistically significant (p < 0.05) except ear width. Univariate discriminant function gave sex prediction accuracies between 56.4 and 57.3% for left and right ears, respectively. Population-specific sex prediction accuracy using stepwise discriminant analysis of left ear variables ranged 58–69.7% and 57.5–74.2% for right ear. Conclusion The ear parameters showed potential for sex estimation, but cannot be solely relied upon for personal identification.

An Analysis of Demographic and Triage Assessment Findings in Bushfire-Affected Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, 2019–2020

In the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires, Kangaroo Island, South Australia, experienced catastrophic bushfires that burnt approximately half the island, with an estimated 80% of the koala population lost. During and after the event, rescued koalas were triaged at a designated facility and a range of initial data were recorded including rescue location and date, sex, estimation of age, body condition and hydration, and assessment of burn severity (n = 304 records available). Koalas were presented to the triage facility over a span of 10 weeks, with 50.2% during the first 14 days of the bushfire response, the majority of which were rescued from regions of lower fire severity. Burns were observed in 67.4% of koalas, with the majority (60.9%) classified as superficial burns, primarily affecting the limbs and face. Poor body condition was recorded in 74.6% of burnt koalas and dehydration in 77.1%. Negative final outcomes (death or euthanasia, at triage or at a later date) occurred in 45.6% of koalas and were significantly associated with higher mean burn score, maximum burn severity, number of body regions burnt, poor body condition score, and dehydration severity. The findings of this retrospective study may assist clinicians in the field with decision making when triaging koalas in future fire rescue efforts.

Sex Estimation Using Geometric Morphometrics

Creating and testing efficient techniques for the sex estimation of modern human skeletal remains has been a significant focus in biological anthropology. It is well established that the innominate, particularly the pubic bone, is a sexually dimorphic part of the human skeleton, but prone to fragmentation. Using modern pubic bones of known age and sex, this study aims to capture shape differences using geometric morphometrics (GMM) to test classification accuracy of segments of the pubic bone. The sample consists of 70 left adult pubic bones from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection, with 35 males and 35 females of mixed age and population affinity. Landmarks were placed on the dorsal surface of the pubic body and ischiopubic ramus to capture their overall shape in two dimensions, so the study is easily replicable and applicable. The scans were separately run through a generalized Procrustes, principal components (PCA), and canonical linear discriminant function analysis (DFA). The DFA results show high classification accuracy for the pubic body (94% males, 100% females) and the ischiopubic ramus (100% females, 97% males), with the PCA DFA allowing a researcher to explore specific shape changes driving the differentiation between groups. GMM was able to quantify and successfully discriminant the shape changes between males and females for small elements of the pubis, which can be applied to fragmentary remains and future morphological methods.

Description and Quantification of Sexual Dimorphism of Pubic Body Shape in Hispanic Populations Using Elliptic Fourier Analysis

Sex estimation is important in the creation of a biological profile for unidentified human remains, as positive identification cannot occur until the decedent’s biological traits have been determined and the range of possible matches has been narrowed. The pubic bone is cited as one of the best indicators of sex due to the constraints of childbirth. Current methods that use the pubic bone for sex estimation, however, rely on poorly defined and subjective observations that are susceptible to inter-and intraobserver error. Additionally, many of the methods currently in use are based on North American populations and thus may not necessarily model the variation seen in other populations around the globe. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of variation in pubic bone shape in Hispanic populations by separating the influences of sex, ancestry, and age at death. A total of 164 pubic bones from North American Hispanic and Chilean individuals were compared to 287 pubic bones from individuals of Euro-American ancestry from North American collections, using Elliptic Fourier analysis (EFA) of photographs, principal component analysis, and ANCOVA. EFA generated five effective principal components that collectively describe approximately 95% of the variation in the shape of the pubic body. Sex, age at death, and ancestry were all found to significantly influence shape but explained only 25% of the overall variation. The remaining 75% is likely influenced by variables that cannot be controlled for in anthropological analysis, underscoring how little variance in skeletal morphology is actually explainable.