A study of sexual variation in Indian femur

Abstract

Assessment of sex from femoral dimensions have been tried before in several populations. Studies conducted so far have demonstrated that populations differ from one another in size and proportion. Therefore, the discriminant formulae developed for determining sex for one population group cannot be applied on another. As to date no detailed study of femur on the subject has been reported from India, an attempt has been made in the present study to examine the sexual dimorphism in femur of Indian origin using 124 femora from central India. Eleven standard dimensions were measured on the bones. The data were analysed using discriminant function procedures and the results of different measurements are reported independently and in various combinations. Maximum head diameter alone could correctly assign sex to 92.5% of males and 95.5% of females. Evaluation of the discriminating ability of the variables selected in stepwise analysis are then conducted using cross validation procedure. To understand the population variation, the discriminant formula derived from Thai, Chinese, South African white, American black and white were applied on the present sample. The comparison indicated that Indians have very different dimension from South African whites and American whites. Their dimensions are more closer to Thais and Chinese but in no way identical to them.