Hips Don’t Lie: Researchers Find More Accurate Technique to Determine Sex of Skeletal Remains

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100706112601.htm
                According to this article, Research from North Carolina State University offers a new technique for determining the sex of skeletal human remains. It is said to be significantly more accurate than visually evaluating the size and shape of the pelvis because when you are faced with fragmentary remains of the pelvis, it can be difficult to determine the dead person’s sex just by visual inspection. Now, Ross and Bytheway have used “a three-dimensional imaging technology to effectively quantify the specific characteristics of the os coxa that differentiate males from females.” Researchers discovered more than 20 anatomical “landmarks” on the pelvis that can be used for determining the sex. This is important because it means that you can determine the sex of the body even with a small fragment of the pelvis. At least a few of the landmarks should be found on the fragment. Now a forensic scientist can use a digitizer to create a three-dimension map of the pelvic fragment and measure the relevant anatomical landmarks, then compare these measurements to the measurements discovered by Ross and Bytheway.


                This article relates to science/biology concepts since determining the sex of skeletal remains has to do with the pelvis in the human body. It tells us how the process works, by creating a 3D map of the small pelvis fragment then comparing the measurements to the measurements discovered by Ross and Bytheway. It also tells us why this way is more accurate than just visually evaluating it. This article basically has to do with the fragments of the pelvis from disasters such as plane crashes or “degraded remains in mass burials.”

                This information was put in the newspaper because we are concerned about how they would determine the sex of skeletal remains by the fragments of the pelvis. Like they said, it is difficult to determine the sex just by evaluating the size and shape of the pelvis, and it is not as accurate, only 90%. This new technique is said to be at least 98% accurate, and it can be useful to many of the archeologists who are interested in determining the sex of the skeletal remains that they have found.