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Quantifying the Shape of the Greater Sciatic Notch using Elliptical Fourier Analysis
Author(s) -
Byram Jessica,
Latham Krista,
Nawrocki Stephen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.696.7
Subject(s) - feature (linguistics) , biology , anatomy , linguistics , philosophy
The greater sciatic notch of the coxa is well established as a sexually dimorphic feature in humans, with wider notches being more common in females. However, the size and shape of the notch can vary between populations, which can complicate the use of this feature as a sex determinant in forensic analyses. The current study investigates the relative contributions of variables that may influence the shape of the greater sciatic notch, including sex, ancestry, age at death, and environmental effects (secular change). As the notch is a complex curvilinear shape not easily quantified using standard linear measurements, a more sensitive morphometric approach was used. The study sample included 975 dry bone specimens obtained from three skeletal collections, including three ancestral groups from recent (1950‐present) and earlier (pre‐1950) time periods. Each coxa was photographed and the contour of the greater sciatic notch was outlined. These contours were uploaded into SHAPE v1.3 and subjected to elliptical Fourier analysis. Principle components generated eigenvalues that identified the variables contributing to the shape of the notch, and 97% of the observed variation could be described using four principle components. Notch shape varies systematically with each of the aforementioned variables, with sex having the greatest contribution. As expected, females display wider symmetrical notches, while those of males are narrow and asymmetrical. However, the final model was only able to explain 14.3% of the total variation in the shape of the notch, indicating that the growth and development of this feature is quite complex.