Sex estimation using the proximal end of the femur on a modern Chilean sample

Abstract

Sex estimation is fundamental for the identification of skeletonized human remains in forensic contexts. The methods most often used are based on pelvis and skull morphology evaluation. When these elements are not available due to poor preservation, other bone elements, such as the femur, can be used given its good preservation and marked sexual dimorphism. Particularly, the proximal end of the femur is the most dimorphic region of this bone, so its evaluation is especially useful for sex estimation. A set of new sex estimation models were elaborated utilizing 8 metric variables from the proximal end of the femur in a modern Chilean sample of 270 individuals (200 individuals for training, 70 individuals for validation) from the Santiago Modern Osteological Collection. Sex estimation models were calculated using logistic regression. Results showed that the models based on the femoral neck measurements are the best sex estimators, with up to 92.9% (univariable models) and 95.7% (multivariable models) of overall accuracy and low sex bias. The models proposed here are the most accurate reported to date for modern Chilean population and can contribute toward the identification of human remains in cases of Human Rights violations committed during the Civil-Military Dictatorship in Chile (1973–1990).