Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
handwritten measurements were entered into a spreadsheet, which was double-checked for
accuracy in transcription.
Given that antemortem information is available about age, sex, stature (from ID cards),
date of birth, place of birth, etc., this was a perfect opportunity to develop a set of stature
formulae to serve as the reference sample for Colombian forensic cases. The sample consisted
of 126 individuals (44 females, 81 males) with a mean age of 47 years. All of the long bones of
the upper and lower limbs were included in univariate inverse regression formulae and the
best multivariate regression equations were calculated using a stepwise procedure. The
equation from the femur for males (Stature = (Femur*2.46)
þ
5.9004
þ
/
3.760) has a high
correlation (r
¼
0.857). The equation from the femur for females (Stature
¼
(Femur*1.787)
þ
0.692). The best multivariate equation
for males was from the femur and tibia combined (Stature
83.592
þ
/
4.951) has a much lower correlation (r
¼
¼
(Tibia*1.592)
þ
(Femur*0.967)
þ
þ
¼
¼
0.784). The best equation for the females was
a univariate equation from the fibula (Stature
67.348
/
3.091; r
0.891, adjusted R2
¼
(Fibula*2.183)
þ
93.170
þ
/
5.065; r
¼
0.697; adjusted R2
0.460). These results indicate that the sample size for the males is suffi-
cient for reliable stature equations, but the sample size for the females should be larger to
improve the correlations for reliability in forensic stature estimation. These results are still
preliminary, due to the small sample size, especially of females. At this writing, the sample
has grown to over 500 individuals and a second phase of data collection has been planned in
order to increase the sample size for stature estimation, among other research endeavors.
¼
Case Study: Chile
Sutphin and Ross (2011)
compared stature estimates of modern Chilean juveniles to Euro-
pean American juvenile stature estimates derived using equations developed by
Ruff (2007)
and
Smith (2007)
. Chileans are also an admixed population. However, the ethnohistorical
origins are quite different exhibiting indigenous or native South American and European
ancestries. The juvenile Chilean sample (n
38) consists of known individuals from the
Cementerio General with death dates between 1950 and 1970. Significant differences were
observed for the teenage years for the femur (
Figure 6.3
), tibia (13
e
15 years), and humerus
(16
e
17 years). This suggests that there is either a populational or nutritional difference in
growth trajectories in the teenage years between Chilean and European American children.
However, the younger or preteen age groups (4
e
6 and 7
e
9 years) showed no significant
differences and thus, equations derived from American children can be utilized to predict
stature in the younger age categories, but not for the teenage years.
¼
F
UTURE RESEARCH IN STATURE ESTIMATION
A recent meta-analysis on stature estimation for the last ten years found the most accurate
predictors of stature continue to be the femur and tibia, the coefficient of correlation for which
ranges from0.82 to 0.93 (SEE 2.4
e
4.0 cm) for bothmales and females (Moore andRichter, 2012).
Thirty of the cited studies in the meta-analysis compare the long bones of the upper and lower
limbs. Fifteen of the studies compare the measurements of the hands or feet (fleshed, radio-
graphic, tarsals, or metacarpals/metatarsals). The vertebrae are the next most commonly
