Sexual dimorphism: metric measurements based study in human talus bone

ABSTRACT

 Background: Identification is the act of establishing the identity of an individual. This is a dynamic process and human remains in form of bones can serve as an excellent tool for establishing the sexual identity of the deceased, along with other methods such as DNA, fingerprints, blood group identification etc. Metric analysis of various bones can serve as a viable alternative in cases when morphological analysis is not possible due to damage to the skeletal remains or as an additive analytical tool to establish a positive identity.Methods: Metric analysis of various parameters of randomly selected 100 pairs of human talus bones (50 male and 50 female) as a means of establishing sexual identity from skeletal remains obtained from unidentified and unclaimed dead bodies brought for autopsy.Results: In the present study we found that the values of all the various dimensions measured were higher among the male subjects as compared to that in female samples as was expected. On further analysis, this difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0.001). For the right sided and left sided talus bone, the probable accuracy for various parameters ranged between 83.3% to 100% each, thus indicating strong correlation between sex of the subject and various measurements.Conclusions: The tarsal and their dimensions are highly sexually dimorphic and are useful in determining sex in individuals of this region.