Osteology Lab: Analyzing Skeletal Remains for Age & Sex

YOUR NAME: LAB SECTION: Applied Osteology Objective: Using what you have learned about osteology, as well as age, sex, and stature estimationy in the previous labs, perform an analysis of a set of skeletal remains and determine the individual’s most likely age, sex, and stature at the time of death. Introduction: For the last few labs you have been learning about osteology, including information about how to identify the sex of an individual based on their pelvis and skull, and how to know whether a particular bone or skull is from an older or younger individual. In this lab, you are going to put that knowledge to use and learn a bit about how forensic anthropologists and bioarchaeologists interpret skeletal remains. Forensic anthropology is a subfield of biological anthropology that analyzes human skeletal remains in a medico-legal context, often with the goal of determining the identity of the deceased individual, interpreting patterns of trauma (for example, how that individual might have died), and estimating the time since death. By contrast, bioarchaeology is another subfield of biological anthropology that analyzes human skeletal remains from archaeological sites; bioarchaeologists often try to identify the sex, age, and health of human remains, typically with the goal of understanding behavior and health patterns from an archaeological site as a whole. Forensic anthropologists and bioarchaeologists often ask the same types of questions, but the context is different. Your task: For this lab, imagine a scenario where a local resident was hiking in the woods outside of Fayetteville and stumbled upon what appeared to be a human skull. Upon closer inspection, they noticed other bones in the area. They contacted the proper authorities who began an investigation. It is your responsibility to assess the bones and record detailed information about their condition. By carefully analyzing and measuring key bones, you must infer the sex, height, and approximate age of the skeleton at the time of death, and do your best to determine whether these remains are forensic (i.e., recent) or bioarchaeological (i.e., ancient). Identifying skeletal remains is an easier task when the entire skeleton is present. However, many times this is not the case and the analyst (in this case, you) must make their assessment based on only a few bones present. This will be the case with today’s lab activity. 1

Part 1. Item Recovery Log The first thing you need to do is make a list of the materials collected. List the bones and other items in the log below. If any of the remains exhibit traumatic marks, make a note in your log to come back to these for further analysis. Item # Description 1 Top cranium 2 Bottom cranium 3 Left mandible 4 Right mandible 5 scapula 6 clavicle 7 Cervical vertabrae 8 Left Humerus- healed incorrecrly 9 Left- radius 10 Left- ulna 11 Right rib 12 Left femur 13 Right Ox Coccyx 14 Lumbar vertabrae 15 Baby tibia 16 Mandible- baby 17 Baby Scapula 18 Red solo cup 19 Yellow, gold, green, and brown buttons 20 Black hairtie 2

Now using the list of remains you just made, shade or color in the bones on the skeletal chart and number them as they correspond to the labels on each item and in the log above. 3

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Part 2. Understanding Trauma and Pathology How do you know whether skeletal remains experienced trauma (e.g., a broken bone) or some type of pathology (e.g., cancer) before (antemortem), during (perimortem), or after (postmortem) death? Some signs of trauma and pathology are more obvious than others. For example, if someone experiences an antemortem bone break and the bone doesn’t heal properly, there may be a very clear callous (i.e., scar on the bone) and/or the bone may be shorter or angled oddly. Similarly, pathological processes such as cancer or infection may leave obvious marks on bones. At this station you are going to observe some types of trauma and pathology that will help you interpret the skeletal remains you have been tasked with examining. Examine the specimens corresponding to the numbers below and describe what you see and how they compare with what you know about typical human bone structure. Bone 1: Pathology This skull is from an adult female that had a condition referred to as a cranial meningioma. Meningiomas are a type of benign (non-malignant) tumor that causes extensive new bone production. This individual also had extensive tooth loss that occurred well before death, as is clear from the lack of any tooth sockets present. 1. How does this skull compare to a non-pathological individual? Describe the differences you observe. The normal skull has more of a lighter tone to it while the pathological skull has teeth missing, bone bruising and trauma to the skull. There are chippings off of the skull as well. Bone 2: Antemortem trauma This bone is a tibia of an adult that experienced an antemortem (before death) fracture. 2. How does this bone compare to a non-pathological individual? Describe the differences you observe. There is an extra growth on the tibia from where it may have been broken and did not heal properly, it also has a more of a yellow hue to the bone compared to the normal bone. There are more cavities in the bone as well. 4

Bone 3: Skull trauma The set of skull fragments before you show various types of blunt force trauma. Blunt force trauma refers to the impact of a blunt object (e.g., a hammer, sidewalk) with the body that can cause a wide variety of injuries. This is different from sharp force trauma that typically involves a blade or other sharp object (e.g., knife). Gun shot wounds can include characteristics of both blunt and sharp force trauma. Some of these injuries occurred well before death and show signs of healing, while others occurred around the time of death. Injuries that occurred close to the time of death often show sharp edges, while injuries that have healed will be more rounded and will show signs of the bone knitting together. Each of these injuries is from a different individual and have been cut away from the skull; note the smooth cut edges of bone that would have been caused by a saw. 3. Describe the features of the injuries you see before you. What type of objects do you think made these marks? Which of the injuries do you think show signs of healing? A has different marks that show trauma that seem to be from a hammer. B looks to be a gunshot wound because it has signs of blunt force trauma along with a hole that a bullet might have gone through. C looks like a wound that was healed or is continuing to heal after the trauma. 5

Part 3. Biological Profile Next you will need to collect information needed to help identify the individual. Record the sex, age (adult/subadult), and height of the individual. Refer back to your prior osteology labs for information on how to determine sex, age, and height. Note that if you have more than two individuals in your remains, you should describe the one with the most bones represented. Sex 1. Based on the morphology of the pelvis , what is the likely sex of this individual? MALE FEMALE INDETERMINATE (highlight or circle your answer) List at least two traits to justify your answer: It is thinner than the original pelvis but has a wider opening in the cervix. 2. Based on the morphology of the skull , what is the likely sex of this individual? MALE FEMALE INDETERMINATE (highlight or circle your answer) List at least two traits to justify your answer: There is barely any brow ridge on this skull which leads me to believe it is a female. The cranium is also more rounder than the male skull. Age 3. Based on your assessment of the features of this skeleton, is this individual more likely to be fully grown (i.e., an adult) or to still be in the process of growing (i.e., a subadult)? ADULT SUBADULT (highlight or circle your answer) Provide at least two features that support your answer: Bones show full growth and there were child bones with the adult suggesting that it is an adult pregnant female. 6

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4. If you identified the remains as representing more than one individual, what is the age (adult or subadult) of the individual for which you have fewer bones? In utero Height 5. Using what you learned about stature estimation in the previous lab, use the osteometric board to measure the femur and estimate the height of the deceased individual. Based on your measurement of the femur, what is the likely height of this individual? Record your measurement here: 42 centimeters *hint- make sure you are measuring in centimeters not millimeters Now that you have obtained your measurement you will multiply it by 2.32 and add 65.53 (see formula below). 2.32 * ( 42 ) + 65.53 = 162.97 centimeters You will then calculate a range by adding and subtracting 3.94 cm to your answer above. 162.97 + 3.94 cm = 166.91 centimeters (Upper end of height range) 162.97 - 3.94 cm = 159.03 centimeters (Lower end of height range) Now convert your range to inches. Divide the upper and lower values each by 2.54. Lower: 159.03 / 2.54 = 62.61 Inches Upper: 166.91 /2.54 = 65.71 inches Approximately how tall was this individual? Report your findings in feet and inches as a range. 5 ft 3 inches ~to~ 5 ft 6 inches 7

Part 4. Description of Remains Documenting the condition human remains are found in is important for understanding how the remains were deposited and the effects the surrounding environment had on their preservation. It is important to note any foreign objects as they may provide clues regarding the individual’s life and/or death. An investigator’s field notes are an essential resource, so the more information, the better. In your report, record the following information: 1. What is the condition of the remains? (e.g., complete/ broken, weathered/clean) The remains are clean with a broken mandible. 2. Are the remains entirely human or is it possible there are animal remains present? The remains are entirely human. 3. Is it likely that all the bones belong to a single person or is it possible there are bones from multiple people represented? How would you know? The remains are more likely to be hers because the bones all point to being female and since the woman was pregnant the bones show that she was with child. 4. Do any of the remains exhibit signs of trauma (e.g., breakage, bullet wounds, etc.) or pathology (e.g., disease processes)? Her mandible was broken but everything else seemed fine 5. Are any foreign objects present among the remains? Yes 8

6. Based on your analysis, do you think these remains are recent (i.e., from a forensic context) or ancient (i.e., bioarchaeological)? Yes they are recent. There is not much dirt and they are clean other than the solo cup. 7. Drawing from your analyses above, describe the human remains you have now analyzed. What is the sex, age, and height of this individual and are there any other important pieces of information you have gathered that might tell you about this individual’s life? Female between the ages 20-28 and about 5’3-5’6. She might have had a husband but she for sure had a baby daddy because of the baby bones that were found. 9

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Applied Osteology Lab_UPDATED January 2024(2)

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