Estimating sex from the seven cervical vertebrae : an analysis of White European skeletal populations

Abstract

The current study focused on the seven cervical vertebrae to establish an accurate sex estimation method for White European skeletal populations. The influences of stature and aging on the cervical vertebrae were also investigated to assess their effects on estimating sex from the cervical vertebrae. Three characteristics from the seven cervical vertebrae were measured (CHT, maximum body height; CAP, vertebral foramen anterior-posterior diameter; and CTR, vertebral foramen transverse diameter). Two hundred and ninety five individuals (157 males, 138 females), ranging from 20 to 99 years old were studied from the contemporary University of Athens and the historic Luis Lopes Skeletal Collections. To date, no study has used the combination of cervical vertebral foramen measurements and the vertebral body height to estimate sex. Intra- and inter-observer error rates were low, with the exception of C1TR. The statistical analyses showed that only CHT and CTR measurements exhibited sexual dimorphism. Seven multivariate discriminant functions were developed that successfully estimated sex between 80.3% and 84.5% accuracy. A cross-validation study tested the reliability of estimating sex using the seven functions. Five of the seven functions exhibited strong statistical algorithms. No ancestral differences were exhibited between the contemporary Greek and historic Portuguese skeletal collections indicating that the discriminant functions are useful for estimating sex of White Europeans from different time periods. No relationship existed between stature and any of the three measurements. Adult females exhibited no age-related changes to the vertebral morphometrics whereas males exhibited age-related changes in only four of the seven CAP diameters. Further testing revealed that these diameters gradually decreased in size between 30 years and 90 years of age. However, the CAP diameter exhibited no significant dimorphic potential for estimating sex. Therefore, this study will assist in estimating sex of unknown White European individuals from the cervical vertebrae and will be useful in cases such as mass disasters when only fragmented remains are available for examination.