Although facial reconstructions from the skull have been widely used in forensic anthropology, their effectiveness has not been objectively assessed. Photographs of two reconstructions produced in this laboratory were shown to FAA employees and local policemen who were asked to select the subject's in vivo photograph when included with those of six other randomly-selected individuals of the same sex, race, and general age. While in both tests the reconstruction subject was chosen with significantly greater frequency than the controls, the results ranged from 26% correct ( N = 104) on the first subject, a 67-year-old female, to 67% correct ( N = 200) on the second, a 36-year-old male. In both tests policemen and civilian females performed better than civilian males.

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A reliable method for extracting DNA from teeth was developed and successfully applied to a set of 12 skeletons recovered from two 10-year-old Guatemalan mass graves. Attempts to identify the remains by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) testing were hampered by low sequence diversity. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of using DNA typing to identify victims from mass graves.

The observation, in 1953, of pink-colored teeth in the exhumed body of a victim in the Christie murders appears to have been the first report of this postmortem phenomenon in recent times [1]. In reporting this and four other cases, Miles and Fearnhead [2] suggested that the pinkness is a natural postmortem phenomenon caused by the seepage into the dentinal tubules of a fluid containing hemoglobin or its degradation products derived from decomposition or liquefaction of the tooth pulp. Beeley and Harvey [3] further reviewed the occurrence of this phenomenon and recorded additional cases in five humans and one dog. Their studies on the red gelatinous material in the pulp chambers of pink teeth gave spectrophotometric evidence for the presence of hemoglobin or other heme compounds. Isoelectric focusing confirmed the identification of the material as hemoglobin or derivatives of hemoglobin.

The Tarahumara Indians of Northwestern Mexico have long been famous as endurance runners. These capabilities are best displayed in the traditional Tarahumara sport of kick-ball racing. Participants in such races may cover up to 100 miles in 24 hours and races lasting 48 hours are not uncommon. This paper presents findings of a preliminary study of Tarahumara endurance capabilities. The data indicate that experienced kick-ball racers are capable of energy expenditures of more than 10,000 Kca1/24 houra figure which is generally considered to represent the upper limits of human voluntary work effort. The aerobic work capacity of Tarahumara boys, who had attended a Mission boarding school for several years, was not significantly different from that of their Mestizo classmates. Unacculturated Tarahumara boys excelled both of these latter groups in physical performance.