Publication details
Here’s looking at you, Fordisc®…
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Presentation from the 22nd Congress of the International Academy of Legal Medicine IALM 2012 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.monduzzi.com/proceedings/moreinfo/20120705.htm |
| Field | Archaeology, anthropology, ethnology |
| Keywords | Fordisc; sex assessment; ancestry; cranial measurements; sexual dimorphism |
| Description | The main goal of our study was to assess the reliability of discriminant functions generated using Fordisc 3 software when applied on human crania, which have no relevance to Fordisc reference populations. Sex and ancestry determination of 914 crania of known sex from six different skeletal collections (Athens, Coimbra, Lisbon, Săo Paulo and two collections from Prague) was carried out. Crania were analyzed using 13 cranial measures computed from 3D Cartesian coordinates of landmarks. Discriminate functions derived from both Howells and FDB database were used to assess sex and ancestry. The accuracy of sex determination varied between 67% and 78% depending on specified ancestry. The crania were assigned to their historically or geographically related reference population at a rate exceeding their odds but not with the widely accepted reliability of 95%. Our results support the assumptions that the reliability of Fordisc 3.1 is limited when the complete set of measurements is not available for the analysis and specimen doesn t belong to the reference population. |