Thursday, November 18, 2010

Is it possible to differentiate between Male & Female Skeleton (Before Puberty)???

The determination of sex in skeletons is only possible once the male or female has reached adolescence or adulthood
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Sexual dimorphism is slight in pre-adolescent children so this is a difficult task to perform if the skeleton is that of what might be a child.
A common way in which a pathologist and anthropologist might differentiate between male and female is quite simply bone size. This of course is not always accurate but for the most part male bones are larger in size to female bones and are so because of the addition muscle that may build up on the male body through adolescence and into adulthood.The pelvis area is another good way of differentiating between the sexes. A female will have a larger sub-pubic angle to that of a man and this is obviously indicative of child bearing requirements in the female that are not required in the male of the species. This difference is noticeable across all species in nature where birth is from the womb. The male's sub-pubic area is less than ninety degrees whilst the female's is more.The area around the pelvic inlet (in the middle of the pelvic bone) is larger in females than in men again with relevance to child bearing.

While there are several differences between male and female skeletons on average, all the differences are relative so it is nearly impossible to identify gender from skeletal measurements alone.

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