Members do not see these Ads. Sign Up.

Hi All,

Just came across this one, has there been any comment here?

They can now identify sex of individual by the dimensions of the Tarsal Bones alone!

Good for archaeology and forensic remains no doubt!

The report is on,

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120229105126.htm

Or some think like that?

Regards,

Colin2000.

 

Re: Gender by Tarsal!

I had a look at the paper and there is side asymmetry between measurements in male talus , cubiods and cuniforms!? .I had a quick look and they measure the various bones in a set way and compare. I dont know if there is any possibility of this being of clinical use but it is intresting.I am amazed at the things I now find of interest , must be getting old
tim

 

Re: Gender by Tarsal!

Yep, Monday is looming...:drinks.

 

Re: Gender by Tarsal!

We were finding differentiation by sex in human tarsal elelements 20 years ago in the Oxnard Lab of Western Australia. Their comment that "[roughly]... one dimension can be misleading, however if one uses two..." is a simplistic way of saying that there is a clear case for a multivariate analysis. We found that, using simple principal components analysis, on appropriately transformed data, a clear sexual dimorphism in the talus, calcaneus and cuboid. The latter was particularly the case in certain groups from Southern Africa. Multivariate analysis is an incredibly powerful tool, when used appropriately. In fact sex was a minor player; far greater patterns of morphological variation found using this and the similar but more powerful canonical variates analysis, were related to shape. Clearly, most of this was related to function - but there was frequently a small but finite amount related to phylogeny, "gene pool", geography, or similar quantum.