Sex estimation from the clavicle: A discriminant function analysis.

摘要

The development of methods for sex estimation using postcranial remains other than the os coxa is imperative for physical anthropology to improve the reliability of biological profile estimates in cases of incomplete and/or fragmentary skeletal remains. As the last skeletal element to complete fusion, the clavicle has the longest period of time to develop sexually dimorphic features, making it an ideal skeletal element for use in sex estimation. Sexual dimorphism in the clavicle was assessed using 18 measurements of the left clavicle of 265 (129 females; 136 males) individuals from the Hamann-Todd Collection. Independent samples t-tests with Bonferroni correction show males and females differ at a statistically significant level for all 18 variables with a significance level of 0.0028. Discriminate function analyses using the stepwise method (0.05 to enter, 0.10 to exit) produced a four variable model with cross-validated accuracy of 89.8%. A holdout sample from the Hamann-Todd Collection (n=30) similar in demographic character to the calibration sample was tested using the four variable model. The accuracy of the four variable model on the holdout sample was 90.0%. Additionally, four single variable models developed to accommodate fragmentary remains also have high predictive power (75.1–82.3% cross-validated calibration sample; 60.0–86.7% hold-out sample).