Reliability of foramen magnum length & breadth and mastoid length in identification of gender of North Chennai region.

Abstract

Identification of the sex from the skeletal remains is the prime work of forensic experts. The present study is carried out to determine the sex of the skull bone from foramen magnum length, breadth and mastoid length. One hundred adult human skull bones of known sex (50 male and 50 female) available in the Department of Anatomy and Forensic Medicine& Toxicology, Madha Medical College and Hospital, Chennai are used for the present study. Among all the three variables statistically analyzed, the most reliable parameter is foremena magnum length which helps to sort out 38% of male skulls and 06% of female skulls i.e. overall 22% of skull bones can be sorted out with this parameter alone. This parameter is also found to be statistically significant.