Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Utilization Of Gis In Tracking Disinterment And Movement Of Unknown Us Wwii War Dead: Foundations For A Geospatial Approach To Addressing Commingled Remains, Ella Axelrod

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the US was faced with the monumental task of finding and identifying over 405,000 service members who did not survive the conflict (McDermott, 2005, p. 1). Of these 405,000, 81,000 remain missing and 2,498 remain unidentified in cemeteries across Europe alone (American Battle Monuments Commission, 2022). Often, these individuals were interred and disinterred multiple times, crossing the continent in the journey from loss incident or battlefield to their final resting place. Commingling, the accidental mixing of remains, is an ever-present concern in the forensic identification of individuals from mass casualty incidents (Belcher et …

Dismantling Binary Assumptions In Sex Estimation: Uplifting Trans And Gender Diverse Identities In Forensic Anthropology, Audrey Holbeck

Honors Theses

Forensic anthropology is a study within the field of physical anthropology that seeks to apply osteological expertise to legal and criminal situations. One of a forensic anthropologists’ most important jobs is to build a biological profile, consisting of age, biological sex, stature, and ancestry, in correspondence to an unidentified decedent. As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, instances of violence against trans and gender non-conforming individuals are unfortunately prominent, however, there has also been more awareness shed on trans activism. Trans individuals are at a higher risk of being victims of violent crime, and thus, forensic anthropologists …

Preliminary Study In More Effective Utilization Of 87sr/86sr Analysis In The Field Of Forensic Anthropology, Samantha Powers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Isotopic analyses are gaining attention in the field of anthropology. The current utilization of strontium isotopes primarily focuses on residence and migration patterns of past populations extracting data from tooth enamel to indicate early-life residence This study aims to identify a skeletal feature to be set as a field standard in strontium analysis of modern remains when seeking end-of-life residence, the impact of diagenesis on modern remains, and to test the accuracy of the petrous as an alternative to tooth enamel.

The results of this research were unable to suggest such a standard but gathered helpful data to be used …

Assessing The Validity Of The Estimation Of Population Affinity From The Maxillary Hard Palate: An Empirical Approach Using A Modern Forensic Sample, Christopher M. Goden

LSU Master's Theses

In response to Beathard and DiGangi’s (2020) call to action for empirical assessment of population affinity estimation methodology, this study investigates the validity of maxillary palate shape as an indicator of ancestral population affinity for human skeletal remains through the use of Elliptical Fourier Analysis (EFA) and Linear Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA). Further, this study also places emphasis on the expressed variation of palate shape within and between population groups exemplified by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of EFA data.

Computed tomography scans of 180 individuals of Black, White, and Hispanic population affinities were obtained from the New Mexico Decedent Imaging …

The Role Of Forensic Anthropological Techniques In Identifying America's War Dead From Past Conflicts, William Belcher, Calvin Y. Shiroma, Lesley A. Chesson, Gregory E. Berg, Miranda Jans

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The Scientific Analysis Directorate of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is a unique entity within the U.S. Government. This agency currently houses the world's largest, accredited skeletal identification laboratory in the world, in terms of the size of the scientific staff, global mission, and number of annual identifications. Traditional forensic anthropology is used for the formation of a biological profile (biological sex, stature, population affinity/ancestry, and age) as well as trauma and pathologies that may be compared with historical records and personnel files. Since World War II, various scientists associated with DoD have conducted …

Estimation Of Age From The Auricular Surface Of The Ilium Through The Utilization Of 3d Scanning And Gis, Krista Bennett

LSU Master's Theses

The ability to produce age estimations for adult skeletons has been a focus of forensic anthropologists for decades. Most age estimation methods for adult remains provide age ranges that are too narrow, too broad, or too vague. This project sought to combine 3D scans with GIS to produce morphological maps of the auricular surface of the os coxa in order to identify quantifiable characteristics for age assessment that could be used for generating narrower age range estimates for older adult remains.

A NextEngine ™ HD Desktop 3D scanner was used to scan the auricular surfaces of 384 os coxae from …

Estimating Postmortem Intervals Of Human Remains Recovered In Mid-Western Waterways: A Test Of Terrestrial And Aquatic Body Scoring Methods, Amanda Rose Fink

Masters Theses

In attempt to determine postmortem intervals (PMI), forensic investigators often rely on observed amounts of postmortem taphonomic alterations of the human body. Research has been conducted in an attempt to understand and predict the sequence and rate of human decomposition using total body scoring methods as well as accumulated degree days (ADD) (Megyesi et al. 2005). While most research focuses on methods of decomposition scoring in terrestrial environments, Heaton et al. (2010) devised a method to aid in the prediction of PMI and postmortem submersion intervals (PMSI) in an aqueous environment. Using 73 forensic cases collected from the Hennepin County, …

A Biologically Informed Structure To Accuracy In Osteometric Reassociation, Kyle Mccormick

Doctoral Dissertations

Commingled assemblages present a common situation in osteological analysis where discrete sets of remains are not readily apparent, thereby hindering biological profile construction and the identification process. Of the methods available for resolving commingling, osteometric reassociation is considered a reliable and relatively objective technique. Traditional osteometric sorting methodologies is a decision-making, error-mitigation approach, where possible matches are eliminated if the calculated pvalue exceeds an analyst-defined threshold. This approach implicitly assumes that all bone comparisons are equally accurate as long as the threshold is attained. This assumption, however, is not based in biological reality. This study tests a hypothetical structure of …

An Investigation Of Diabetes Mellitus In Postmortem Human Remains, Shannon Elizabeth May

Doctoral Dissertations

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most prevalent and significant metabolic diseases impacting modern human populations. The goal of this research is to explore several analytical methods to better appreciate how diabetes impacts the skeleton, and to determine if this effect can be recognized in postmortem remains. Anthropologists are tasked with elucidating the relationship between nutrition, metabolism, growth, development, and skeletal health. Diabetes represents a crucial point of interface between these factors. Furthermore, as the percentage of diabetics increases in the general population, so will their representation in forensic cases. This study will provide tools for identifying characteristics of diabetes …

Nonparametric Discriminant Analysis In Forensic Ancestry Estimation: An Assessment Of Utilized And Alternative Statistical Methods, David Anthony Mercer

Masters Theses

This thesis evaluates and compares the performances of four discriminant analysis techniques in forensic ancestry estimation using craniometric variables. Giles and Elliot (1962) were the first anthropologists to use discriminant analysis for ancestry estimation. They used Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) in an attempt to predict American White, American Black, and American Indian ancestry from craniometric variables. LDA has since been the dominant discriminant technique used for this purpose. It is the method that is exclusively used in FORDISC (Ousley and Jantz, 2005) and, until recently, was the only method applied to forensic craniometric ancestry estimation.

LDA, however, assumes the data …