Forensic Anthropology

“There is a brief but very informative biography of an individual contained within the skeleton, if you know how to read it…”

-Clyde Snow, forensic anthropologist

Alphonse Bertillon • Father of Anthropometry

– Developed ID method based on 11 measurements

– Unreliable – abandoned for fingerprints

Bertillon LAB

I think them be BONES…

What is Bone?

Bone Function

• 206 bones in an adult human • Function of bones:

– Provides structure and rigidity – Protects soft tissue and organs – Serves as an attachment for muscles – Produces blood cells – Serves as a storage area for minerals – Can detoxify the body by removing heavy metals and

other foreign elements from the blood

Under the Microscope

• Anthropologists can use either whole bones or PIECES OF BONE to make the following determinations:

• An age range

• Sex

• Race

• Approximate height

• Cause of death, disease, or anomaly

You will be able to:

• Distinguish between a male and a female skeleton

• Give an age range after examining unknown remains

• Describe differences in skull features among the three major racial categories

• Estimate height by measuring long bones

Bones and landmarks to know:

• Cranial bones • Cranial Sutures • Mandible • Teeth • Epiphyseal

Line/Plate • Vertebral column • Sacrum • Coccyx • Coxal bones • Pubic symphysis

• Pubic arch • Sciatic notch • Hyoid • Clavicle • Humorus • Radius • Ulna • Carpals • Metacarpals • Phalanges • Femur

• Patella • Tibia • Fibula • Metatarsals • Tarsals

Age

• At birth, humans have approximately 450 bones

• Bones fuse as we grow

• The last bone fuses at ~26 YOA

• There are 206 bones in the adult body

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Age Determination Most accurate estimations from:

Teeth

Epiphyses or growth plates

Pubic symphysis

Cranial sutures: the three major cranial sutures appear as distinct lines in youth and gradually close from the inside out.

Investigators always use an age range because of the variation in people and how they age. The investigator does not want to eliminate any possibilities for identification.

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Age Determination Using Cranial Sutures

Sagittal suture completely closed Males—26 or older Female—29 or older

Sagittal suture is complete open Male—less than 32 Female—less than 35

Complete closure of all three major sutures Male—over 35 Female—over 50

Sagittal suture

Lambodial Coronal

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Age Determination Using Basilar Suture

Basilar Suture Technically known as the

synchondrosis spheno-occipitalis, closes in females as young as 14 and in males as young as 16. If the suture is open, the individual is generally considered 18 or younger.

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Age Determination Using Epiphysis

Stage of Union of Medial Clavicle

Male Female

Non-union without separate epiphysis

21 or younger 20 or younger

Non-union with separate epiphysis

16-21 17-20

Partial union 17-30 17-33

Complete union 21 or older 20 or older

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Age Determination Using Epiphysis

Stage of Union of the Iliac Crest

Male Female

Non-union without separate epiphysis

16 or younger 11 or younger

Non-union with separate epiphysis

13-19 14-15

Partial union 14-23 14-23

Complete union 17 or older 18 or older

Images: http://www.legacyhealth.org/images/Housecalls/claviclefx.jpg, http://www.sciencephoto.com/images/download_lo_res.html?id=773301768, http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/calvert_femur.html, http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/trauma.html

What else can we learn from bones? DNA samples can be collected from bone, teeth, and hair to provide clues to a person’s identity. Scientists may also be able to gain clues as to a person’s past, recent injuries, or the cause of death based on bone fractures and other signs of trauma.

Damage from a hammer

Gunshot Wounds

Healed Fractures

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Facial Restoration

After determining the sex, age, and race of an individual, facial features can be built upon a skull to assist in identification. Erasers are used to make tissue depths at various points on the skull. Clay is used to build around these markers and facial features are molded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQaEv5D7Ndo Detective’s Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HaJT7OVIQ

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Steps in Facial Reconstruction

With a skull: Establish age, sex and race Plot landmarks for tissue

thickness Plot origin and insertion points

for muscles Plot landmarks for facial

features Select a dataset and mount

markers for tissue thickness Mount the eyes

Model muscles on skull Add fatty tissue around

eyes and lacrimal glands Add eyelids Add the nose Add the parotid gland Add the ears Cover all with layers of

skin Detail the face

John Emil List • “Breeze Knoll” Westfield, NJ

• Three kids, wife, and mother

• Late 60s early 70s

• Nov 9th: Vacation staycation

• "I'm sorry that it all had to end this way but with so little income I just couldn't go on keeping the family together. And I didn't want them to experience poverty." He made the same excuse to Helen's mother, the children's maternal grandmother. He also mentioned that he could not be sure that their souls would remain pure in the future, giving the impression that he believed he had killed them for their own good. To save his own mother from anguish, he had killed her, too.

• August 1972, house burnt down – arson unsolved

• 18 year manhunt

WANDA FLANNERY

• Tabloids • Neighbor Bob

Clark

FRANK BENDER

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One Final Product

John List killed his entire family, moved to a new town and assumed a new identity. Seventeen years later, Frank Bender reconstructed what he believed List would look like. It was shown on America’s Most Wanted, and he was turned in by the viewers almost immediately. . . looking very much like the reconstruction.

Check out more about this story on CourtTV’s crime library: www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/list/1.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6o6stIMtMU

FORENSIC ODONTOLOGY

HISTORY: 66 A.D. • Nero’s mother

Agrippina orders the head of Lollina Paulina

TODAY • Dental records for ID

– Antemortem/ Postmortem matches

• Universal numbering system: – Fillings – Extractions – Surface structure/root

configuration – Adjacent teeth – Twisted/tilted teeth

8 Teeth in Israel: 400,000 yrs?!

• Webquest on ODONTOLOGY

• Odontology Lab

• Carla Terry Case Questions

FORENSIC ODONTOLOGY

Tools of the Trade

• Tools of Anthropologists

Reading the Remains Watch the video and then answer the questions.

1. What information do they provide for law enforcement agencies?

2. How many skeletons do they have in their collection?

3. What do they learn about a skeleton from each tool?

CT Scan –

X- ray –

Mass spectrometer –

Scanning electron microscope –

DNA Analysis –

Forensic Tools & Techniques Watch the video and then answer the questions.

1. What techniques or tools did the scientists use to find the body?

2. What is “disturbed soil”? What might it indicate?

3. How did they narrow down the areas to investigate?

4. Did they find a body?

Dirty Bones

How to excavate bones

• What is the correct procedure for excavating bone?

• What is the “context” of the bones?

• What materials are the excavation tools made of?

• Why is this material used?

Caveman found buried the way females were buried.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Bone-Cops.html

http://player.ooyala.com/player.js?height=384&width=512&embedCode=Z5YTdwOn2J2QIv7gWJ6XaBLYU7KBy_vT&deepLinkEmbedCode=Z5YTdwOn2J2QIv7gWJ6XaBLYU7KBy_vT

http://catholicphoenix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/mother-and-baby-Pompeii-victim.jpg

Ecology and Entomology

Forensic Ecology – Environmental System effects Forensic Taphonomy – study of decay Forensic Entomology – Study of Insect activity Try out the Case!