Sexual Dimorphism from Femoral Bone Dimensions Parameters among African Tribes and South Africans of European Descent

Authors:

Najam Siddiqi* and Mark Norrish

Volume 3, Issue 1

Abstract

Background: The skeletal dimensions remain an important to identify the victim in cases of disastars where key

identification points of the body is lost. Sex determination is the first step in identifying a body.The main objective of this

paper was to generate race-specific femoral database and to determine sexual demorphism of femur in South Africans

ethnic groups and South Africans of Europeon decent. Six standard femoral variables were used; bone length, maximum

head diameter, bicondylar breadth, head-neck length, lateral and medial condylar length. Ten South African ethnic groups

(Zulu, Tswana, Swazi, Sotho, Xhosa, Dart Peti, Shan, Dart Shan, Ndebele and Venda) were considered as the independent

variable and South Africans of European Descent. A total of 235 male femura and 160 female femora were obtained from

Dart's Collection at Witwatersrand University.

Results: Male dimensions were significantly larger than females dimensions in all the ethnic groups (p 0.001) except

Shan and Dart Shan. Strong correlation was observed between head diameter and bone length.

Conclusions: This study developed a database for sexual demorphism in femura among 10 South African ethnic groups

and SAED. Results showing male dimensions larger than females. This is the first such study elaborating the race-specific

sexual demorphism in South African ethnic groups.

Keywords:

Forensic Anthropology; Sexual Dimorphism; Femur; South African Ethnic Groups; South Africans of

European Descent

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