Sexual dimorphism from vertebrae: its potential use for sex estimation in an identified osteological sample

Abstract

In archaeological and medicolegal contexts, sex estimation is a crucial parameter to personal identification. However, it can be a complex task if the skeletal remains are damaged or fragmented. For this reason, is important to establish new reliable methodologies and techniques using alternative sexually dimorphic anatomical regions than pelvic and skull such as vertebrae. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the level of sexual dimorphism of first, second and seventh cervical and twelfth thoracic vertebrae from the Coimbra Identified Skeletal Collection of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) and to develop logistic regression equations for sex estimation based on metric data from these vertebrae. The sample comprised 73 individuals (38 males and 35 females) with a mean age of 50.10±18.34 years. Eleven multivariate logistic regression equations were developed with accuracy rates between 80.0% and 92.5%. The first cervical vertebra demonstrated to be useful for sex diagnosis when more sexually dimorphic anatomical regions (i.e., pelvis and skull) are not available or suitable for analysis.