The role of mandibular morphological markers in determining sex and age: anatomical and anthropometric analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Sex estimation is a very important part of anthropological and forensic research. After the pelvic skeleton, the skull is the easiest place to distinguish sex. The morphological characteristics of the mandible, which is the largest and strongest bone in the skull, play an important role in sex estimation because it varies according to age, sex and race. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In our study, mandibular length (ML), symphysis height (SH), bimental width (BMW), bicondylar width (BCW), bigonial width (BGW), ramus height (RH) and ramus width (RW) were morphologically examined on 130 dry mandibular bones of which age and sex were estimated. RESULTS: Bigonial width, a key indicator of mandibular width, also showed significant differences between the sexes in all age groups (p < 0.05), with males having wider mandibles. Other significant differences were observed for bimental width in the 20-25, 31-35 and 51-55 age groups, and for bicondylar width in the 20-25 and 31-35 age groups. On the other hand, ramus width showed no statistically significant differences between males and females in any age group, suggesting a more uniform characteristic between the sexes. CONCLUSIONS: In our study, it can be seen that there are significant sex differences in the various dimensions of the mandible, and that males in general have larger dimensions compared to females. In this context, the morphological findings of our study provide an accurate estimation of the age and sex of the individual.