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Greater sciatic notch as a sex indicator in juveniles
Author(s) -
Vlak Dejana,
Roksandic Mirjana,
Schillaci Michael A.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.20875
Subject(s) - sexual dimorphism , juvenile , context (archaeology) , biology , anatomy , ontogeny , morphology (biology) , zoology , demography , ecology , paleontology , genetics , sociology
Using Schutkowski's method for juvenile sex determination (Schutkowski H. 1993. Am J Phys Anthropol 90:199–205), we evaluated the morphology of the greater sciatic notch of 56 ilia (23 females and 33 males) from a documented skeletal collection housed at the Bocage Museum in Lisbon (Portugal). After applying Schutkowski's original methodology and comparing the results with previous studies, we used age‐adjusted metrical variables to describe greater sciatic notch depth, breadth, and angle. Although results of both morphological and metrical analyses did not reveal a statistically significant level of sexual analyses dimorphism, we found a strong correlation between pelvic morphology and age at death. On the basis of the obtained results, we argue that Schutkowski's morphological method does not predict sex accurately in all populations and that recorded correlation of iliac features with age needs to be further explored in the context of the ontogeny of sexual dimorphism. Am J Phys Anthropol 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.