Metric assessment of ancestry from the vertebrae in South Africans

Abstract

Ancestry estimation is one of the four basic steps for developing a biological profile. Research has shown that there are a certain amount of morphological and anthropometric differences among skeletons in populations. The aim of this study was to examine the Pretoria Bone Collection to analyze the ancestral variation in the vertebrae of the South African black and white population. The sample was composed of complete vertebrae from 144 individuals (73 whites, 71 blacks). Ancestry differences were assessed using the discriminant function procedure. Regarding the results of this study, when vertebral columns were evaluated, the data indicated (with high reliability) a difference between the two ancestries. The analysis provided an accuracy rate of 98 % in males and 93.5 % in females. Compared to skeleton pieces such as the skull and the pelvis, which have been studied often with high reliability results, these rates are highly significant.

Generating a Vertebrae‐based Method to Discriminate between Korean and U.S. White Male Casualties from the Korean War,

“…The functions in Table yielded decent CCR's (62.7–84.9%), which are comparable to previous studies using vertebrae . Ünlütürk report higher CCR's (70.3–93.1%) than this study; however, since the functions require three to nine variables to measure, they are not applicable when not all the measurements can be taken. With a clear tendency toward higher CCR's in larger vertebrae, the CCR's of 70% or higher were obtained from functions with C2, T11, and L2 through L5 variables as well as the function produced by stepwise analysis.…”

“…Metrically, American White males have greater lengths of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar columns as well as their combined length than American Black males (; however, no such differences were noticed in Todd and Pyle's study). Recently, efforts have been made to generate discriminant functions using multiple dimensions of the vertebrae . The previous studies indicate a potential utility of vertebrae as an ancestry indicator in a forensic context.…”

“…The goal of this study was to examine the usefulness of the vertebral body height as an ancestry indicator to discriminate between the Korean and American White males killed during the Korean War. Previous studies report morphological and/or metric differences in the vertebrae between different ancestral groups . The applicability of some metric assessments is likely to be limited due to partial fragmentation of the vertebrae as the techniques require measurements of multiple dimensions (e.g., ).…”

“…Previous studies report morphological and/or metric differences in the vertebrae between different ancestral groups . The applicability of some metric assessments is likely to be limited due to partial fragmentation of the vertebrae as the techniques require measurements of multiple dimensions (e.g., ). Also, previous studies focused on the White and Black populations of the U.S. or South Africa except the inclusion of a Hispanic sample in Swenson .…”

Towards a Method for Discerning Sources of Supply within the Human Remains Trade via Patterns of Visual Dissimilarity and Computer Vision

“…While various researchers have and continue to attempt to develop regression equations to estimate ancestry from various infracranial elements (e.g. Liebenberg et al 2015;Meeusen et al 2015;Wescott 2005;Tallman & Winburn 2015;Ünlütürk 2017;Swenson 2013), it is the collection of a battery of metric measurements and non-metric/macromorphoscopic traits from ideally intact crania that are considered the most reliable. Ideally ancestry estimation would occur as part of a suite of interdisciplinary research performed in collaboration with anthropologists and/or law enforcement to fully establish the biological profile and (as much as possible) the life history of the individual whose cranium was recovered from the market (e.g.…”