Korean J Phys Anthropol.  2009 Sep;22(3):205-212.

Determination of Sex in Koreans using Atlas

• Park DK
• Ra JJ
• Park KH
• Ko JS
• Kim DI
• Kim YS
• Lee UY
• Chung IH
• Han SH

Abstract

When forensic anthropologists tried to reconstruct the biological profile, they would rely on the statistical data of documented human osteological/anatomical specimens. However, the metric data of Korean ancestry which is suitable for determining sex has not been established because documented human skeletal specimens are lack in Korean. The aim of this study is to discuss the possibility of determination of sex by metric data of atlas in Koreans. We measured 43 (male 25 and female 18) atlas from the department of anatomy, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University and the department of anatomy, Yonsei University College of Medicine. We measured 21 measurements of atlas using digimatic caliper and performed statistic analysis using SPSS to establish the discriminant functions. Among 21 measurements of atlas, the measurement values of the width of atlas exhibited the strongest relation with sexes. The accuracy of arbitrary discriminant functions derived from 6 measurements exhibited 93.9% and that of stepwise discriminant functions derived from 3 measurements exhibited 97.0%. In conclusion, this study could indicate that metric data of atlas is helpful to determine the sex in Koreans, but a further investigation should be followed.

Keyword

Biological profile; Korean; Atlas; Sex-determination; Metric data

MeSH Terms

Female
Humans