Previous studies evaluating sexual dimorphism in subadult pelvic features present variable, and at times conflicting, conclusions. As a result, there is yet to be a consensus on whether the subadult pelvis can be used in sex estimation methods. This study aims to assess the forensic utility of ilium shape and greater sciatic notch morphology in sexing subadult pelves prior to acetabular fusion. A sample of 397 modern U.S. individuals with unfused acetabula (i.e., tri-radiate cartilages) aged birth to 14 years was queried from a larger sample of postmortem computed tomography scans. Elliptical Fourier analyses were performed on ilium and greater sciatic notch outlines and resultant PCs were evaluated for significant effects of sex and age. Greater sciatic notch metrics were also collected. Stepwise linear discriminant function analyses with leaveone-out cross-validation were performed on the PCs and metric variables. Analyses were performed on pooled samples, on age-specific cohort samples, and on samples that iteratively removed the youngest one-year cohort. Cross-validated correct classification rates ranged from 57% to 65% and no patterns were observed to support an appearance and/or consistent expression of sexually diagnostic traits. Based on the results, sex estimation using these features is not recommended in pelvic remains prior to acetabular fusion, although the sample sizes of individuals over 5 years of age were limited in this study. Future studies should focus on the sexually diagnostic ability of pelvic traits in subadult samples post-fusion of the acetabulum.
Previous bioarchaeological analysis of postmortem tooth loss (PMTL) has failed to recognize the potential influence of diseased dental tissue on tooth retention after death. Because tooth loss from a traditional taphonomy prospective is treated simply as missing data, demographic studies are potentially influenced by underestimations of disease prevalence. To investigate the association of tooth loss and dental disease, tissue health data was collected on a sample of teeth from 771 individuals. By analyzing the health of the bone and dental tissues immediately surrounding empty alveolar sockets suggestive of PMTL, trends in the presence of diseased tissue and retention of a tooth emerged. When compared to teeth retained after death, PMTL sockets were 15.3% less likely to retain neighboring teeth and 21.5% less likely to have neighboring teeth that showed no signs of carious lesions or abscesses. The results suggest that the traditional explanation of susceptibility to damage because of the exposure and morphology of single-rooted, anterior teeth does not sufficiently explain the causes of PMTL. Rather, it would be more accurate to consider PMTL as an advanced symptom of dental disease when interpreting missing teeth in the bioarchaeological record.
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