Abstract
The auricular surface and pubic symphysis are commonly used in age estimation. This study aimed to compare the results of age estimation between dry bones and 2D images of the os coxae and to develop a tool specifically for Thai individuals. The total samples were 250 left os coxal dry bones divided into 200 samples (100 males, 100 females) for the training set and 50 samples for the test set. The age range was 26 – 94 years. We used the Suchey-Brooks method and Berg method for observing the pubic symphysis and the Buckberry-Chamberlain method for observing the auricular surface. Afterward we compared the dry bones and photo parts. Our results showed sex did not play a significant role in estimating the age-at-death. In both parts, the auricular surface yielded the highest accuracy (80 – 84%) with SEE = 13.99 – 14.24 years. The pubic symphysis showed an accuracy of 74 – 76% and SEE = 14.37 – 14.44 years. The results of the dry bone and photo parts did not differ significantly. In both dry bone and photo parts, the intra-observer agreement performed moderate to almost perfect agreement. On the other hand, the inter-observer agreement was slight to fair. In conclusion, our study can be potentially applied for distant consultation for age estimation using 2D pelvic images with a forensic anthropologist for estimating biological profiles.
Highlights
Determining the age of human skeletal remains is an important part of biological profile estimation in the forensic anthropological field for identifying deceased or missing persons in criminal cases or mass disasters
For the dry bone part, when we observed at the auricular surface, transverse organization and surface texture were significantly correlated with age and standard error of the estimate (SEE) ± 13.997 years (Table 3)
When we combined the variables of the auricular surface and pubic symphysis, we found the transverse organization, surface texture, and phases of pubis were correlated significantly with age-at-death, and R was higher than that of a single area
Summary
Determining the age of human skeletal remains is an important part of biological profile estimation (consisting of sex, age, stature, and ancestry) in the forensic anthropological field for identifying deceased or missing persons in criminal cases or mass disasters. More accurate and precise methods for age estimation are necessary for all ages (Miranker, 2016). The most widely used techniques for age estimation in adults are based on morphological features of pelvic bones due to the good preservation in the recovery process, including pubic symphysis, auricular surface, and acetabulum (Miranker, 2016; Mulhern and Jones, 2015; Mays, 2014; Milner and Boldsen, 2012). Many researchers utilized different parts of the os coxa and other bones, whereas Cappella et al, 2017 and Miranker et al, 2016 evaluated various pelvic parts for age estimation with the best parameters being the acetabulum and auricular surface. Milner and Boldsen, 2012 reported that the pubic symphysis performed the best for estimating the age-at-death, followed by the sacroiliac joint and cranial suture, in contemporary American populations. Rivera-Sandoval et al, 2018 and Hagelthorn et al, 2019 stated that the auricular surface was the most accurate trait
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