The high number of unidentified bodies recorded in South Africa annually, combined with substantial heterogeneity within the population, necessitates that innovative forensic analysis methods be developed that incorporate ...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE : In forensic anthropology, the biological profile is based on human variation and can help in the process of personal identification. In order to better understand shape variation of the mental region, ...

Population history and positive assortative mating directs gene flow in such a way that biological differences are recognized among groups. In turn, forensic anthropologists quantify biological differences to estimate ...

Quantification of skeletal data has been shown to be an effective and reliable method of demonstrating variation in human growth as well as for monitoring and interpreting growth. In South Africa as well as internationally, ...

Forensic anthropologists frequently use measurements of the human skeleton to determine sex and ancestry. Since the establishment of the Daubert criteria of admissibility of scientific evidence to court, methodologies ...

Manual landmarking is used in several manual and semi-automated prediction guidelines for approximation of the nose. The manual placement of landmarks may, however, render the analysis less repeatable due to observer ...

Thirteen skeletons were excavated in the Pilanesberg National Park and represent a relatively large collection of Iron Age remains from a single location. The aim of this paper is to describe these remains by examining age ...

The validity of the method in which total body score (TBS) and accumulated degree-days (ADD) are used to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI) is examined. TBS and ADD were recorded for 232 days in northern South Africa, ...

The identification of human skeletal remains begins with the construction of a biological profile of an unknown individual, and includes an assessment of the age, sex, ancestry, and stature. This biological profile originated ...

Reliable and valid population specific standards are necessary to accurately develop a biological profile, which includes an estimation of peer-reported social identification (Hefner, 2009). During the last 300 ...