New approach to age estimation of male and female adult skeletons based on the morphological characteristics of the acetabulum

Abstract

Age estimation is essential to the human identification process, both in forensic and archeological contexts. Based on the previous male-specific method of Rissech et al. (J Forensic Sci, 2006, 51:213-229), a new approach to age estimation based on the acetabulum has been described and evaluated in 611 individuals from the Lisbon Collection (Lisbon, Portugal). This paper has two main goals: (1) to revise and better define the variables of Rissech's method related to the acetabular fossa, namely, variables 5, 6, and 7, and (2) to extend the applicability of this new approach to both sexes while analyzing age-related sex differences in the acetabular aging process. The results demonstrate the suitability of combining acetabulum traits and a Bayesian approach to estimating age in adults of both sexes. This study has confirmed the usefulness of the redefined variables of the acetabular fossa when age-related changes are considered. Furthermore, the newly defined variables have good to excellent values of repeatability. The study has also extended the method's applicability to females. The revised method has absolute error averages of 7.28 years for males and 7.09 years for females, based on a sex-specific reference sample. In addition, approximately 74 % of the individuals estimated had an absolute error less than 10 years. Interestingly, the acetabular aging process follows similar trends in both sexes, but the aging rate seems to be different between males and females, especially in middle-aged individuals. Despite the fact that the age estimates, on average, did not improve significantly with the use of a sex-specific reference sample, it is recommended that the sexes be analyzed separately due to the differences in aging rates and inaccuracy values.

Validation of the Acetabulum As a Skeletal Indicator of Age at Death in Modern European‐Americans,

“…The current results are consistent with previous research by San‐Millán et al. indicating the strong age correlation of the seven acetabular variables . Other research, however, has indicated that variables of the acetabular fossa are less strongly correlated with age than variables of the acetabular rim .…”

“…It is possible that fossa variables would have correlated more strongly with age in the research of Calce and Mays if the variable descriptions had been more clearly elucidated in the original method . To this end, recent research has emended the existing descriptions of the acetabular variables , modifying Variables 5 through 7 for clarity and repeatability. Future method tests should determine whether these changes have improved the method sufficiently to reduce issues of intra‐ and inter‐observer error.…”

“…Forensic anthropologists frequently examine joint surfaces to inform their adult age estimates . All joints change with age, but some exhibit metamorphic change, while others exhibit degenerative change .…”

“…The acetabulum has been a focus of age‐estimation research for over a decade, and several acetabulum‐based aging methods have been proposed . However, the progressive changes that occur in the acetabulum remain poorly understood.…”

DXAGE: A New Method for Age at Death Estimation Based on Femoral Bone Mineral Density and Artificial Neural Networks

“…The accurate estimation of age at death in human skeletal remains is a major requirement for establishing a biological profile and for individual identification and endures as a major challenge in forensic anthropology (1)(2)(3). There are several methods available based on macroscopic observation of degenerative skeletal features (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12). However, these tend to have lower reproducibility because of the subjective nature of user-observation (2,11,(13)(14)(15)(16)(17).…”