Effectiveness of Bones in Displaying Height

The application of the science of physical and biological anthropology to the legal process is the definition for Forensic Anthropology (The Free Dictionary , 2012). Forensic anthropologist examines human remains in order to work out the individual’s age, sex, ancestry, stature and other unique features. An example of this was seen when the 17th century crime was solved when a forensic anthropologist managed to solve using a skeleton found in Maryland buried underneath a layer of fireplace ash and animal bones (Smithsonian, 2009). Through the analysis of the bones the Forensic Anthropologist was able to determine the boy’s race, age, job and time of death.

An individual’s height can be also inferred from a few particular bones in the body such as the; Humerus, Tibia and Radius. In particular the long bones of the skeleton are used as they more effectively display the height of the individual’s (ScLinks NSTA, n.d.). Long bones are defined as bones that are longer then they are wide and are mainly located on the arms, legs, hand and the feet (University of Maryland Medical Center, 2013).

Ossification is defined as the process of laying new bone material by particular cells called osteoblasts (Medicine Net, 2013). Ossification enables bones to grow as the human body develops and is also a major factor in enabling Forensic anthropologists in determining the height of an individual.

Bone size increases as an individual matures, causing the human body to increase in height. The increase in the size of bones is mainly caused by the growth plates in bones, called epiphyses. By the end of puberty the growth plates finish maturing and fuse. The fuse of growth plates stops the individual from growing. The female’s bones complete their de...

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...um, minimum and average was therefore calculated for both the male and female data as depicted in table 2 and 4. It can be concluded from these statistics that by using the length of the Radius the gender can be found. This is supported as the mean length of the Radius for the males was 30.02 whilst the females had a mean length of 25.38. That is nearly 5cm separating the average male Radius to the Female Radius. In the male and female data only one male had a small radius enough to share the length of the longest female radius. Therefore it can be concluded that the Radius can be used to clearly differentiate the gender of individuals.

However it must be taken into consideration that the bones such as the pelvis was not measured. In this particular experiment the pelvis was not chosen to be measured due to the privacy reasons aroused by the subjects.