Mahdi Hamzehtofigh; Parvindokht Bayat & Rezvan Rahimifar
Sex determination from bones is of vital importance in anthropological studies and medico-legal cases. The present study focused on measurements of the humerus, and evaluation of the differences in sex present in the morphology through statistical analysis. In our study, 61 dry adult humerus bones of known sex (35 males and 26 female) were studied. Damaged bones were excluded from the study. Each humerus was measured for 10 parameters; measurements were taken by using a sliding caliper as described in anthropology textbooks and previous studies. The osteometric data of the humerus of the present study is statistically analyzed and in both sexes are compared. Statistical tests were applied to the metrical data obtained to assess whether the differences between the means of each parameter are statistically significant between male and female. We found more discriminatory parameters for the identification of sex from humerus. In this study we found in men positive correlations between AR and epicondylar width (0.471**) and midshaft with length of humerous (0.481**); the correlation of these parameters was not found in females. Conversely we found in female, positive correlations between medial and lateral angle with mid shaf t circumference (0.488**) and width of epicondylar and maximum length (0.511**) and medial angle, with medial and lateral angle (0.498**)and maximum width with length of humerous (0.512**); correlation of these parameters were not observed in males. In previous studies authors did not analyze relationship between total humeral length and the measurements of their segments related to possible differences among populations, by sex separately. This may be due to genetic, nutritional and socio-economic differences in the individuals or may be due to hypo masculinity in female humerus and hyper masculinity in male humerus.
KEY WORDS: Sex determination analysis; Humerus; Anthropometry.
HAMZEHTOFIGH, M.; BAYAT, P. & RAHIMIFAR, R. Sex determination from the humerus bone in Iranian cases. 37(4):1370-1374, 2019.
