Determination of sexual dimorphism from foramen magnum in an Eastern Indian Population Panja WB1, Hansda S2, Chowdhuri S3,*, Saha A4, Das S5, Ghosal S6 1MBBS Student, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata 2Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata 3Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Calcutta National Medical College, Kolkata 4Associate Professor, Department of Anatomy, RG KAR Medical College, Kolkata 5Research Scholar, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Odisha 6Research Scholar, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital *Corresponding Author, Dr. Soumeek Chowdhuri Email: smk.kgp@gmail.com, Mobile No.: +91 90075 80064
Online published on 22 April, 2024. Abstract Human identification is an important arena of forensic investigation, it includes sex determination which becomes extremely difficult in fragmented skeletal remains. Skull dimensions are measured for the purpose of sexual dimorphism which vary in different populations. In this study, we attempted to analyse the measurements from adult human skulls and employ discriminant function to predict sex accurately. A manual vernier calliper was used to measure the antero-posterior (AP) diameter and transverse diameter of foramen magnum of 88 skulls (49 males, 39 females) from the collection housed at the department of Anatomy, RG KAR medical college and Calcutta medical college. The Wilk's lambda for the model is 0.795. The discriminant function equation is, Df= 3.342× (AP diameter of foramen magnum) +0.725× (Transverse diameter of foramen magnum) -13.641(constant). The cut-off point is 0.505. So above this value 0.505, the cases are male and below it, the cases are female. On comparing the measurements, we found that antero-posterior dimensions and transverse dimensions of foramen magnum were greater in males than females. Collectively, all the results indicate that dimensions of foramen magnum can be used as a moderate indicator for sex determination in regional populations. Top Keywords Forensic science, Forensic anthropology, Sex characteristics, Discriminant analysis, Foramen magnum. Top |