Sex Determination Using Tali Bones
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Date
2024-09-30
Journal Title
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Publisher
Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Abstract
The talus is an important bone used in forensic and archaeological cases for the determination of the sex of human
remains because it is a preservational favored bone of the body. The study is designed to take the measurements
and dimensions of dry tali to determine the sex as well as the sides of the bones. A total of 82 cadaveric bones
were used. In each of the bones, measurements like tali length, breadth, widths, height, head height, head-neck
length, trochlear breadth and length, length and breadth of the medial-lateral articular facet, and length and breadth
of the posterior calcaneal articular surface were taken. Eleven parameters were measured on 82 bones (49 males
and 33 females) obtained from the Anatomy Museum of the Anatomy Department, College of Health Sciences,
University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0 was used to analyze the
discriminant function of all the measurements that were taken. The statistical analysis showed that all measured
parameters were sexually dimorphic. Forty-four right tali 44 and thirty-eight left tali were found. The average
accuracy for all the bones was 80.5% following the stepwise procedures from the discriminant function analysis.
While the accuracy for correctly classifying the bones into males was 71% and females was 94%, the female tali
bones were most often correctly classified. In conclusion, the talus bone was shown to be useful for the
determination of sex.
Description
Keywords
talus/tali, dimorphic, cadaveric, archaeological, skeletal remains