ISSN: 0022-1198
CODEN: JFSCA
Published Online: 1 April 1976
Page Count: 3

The State of the Art of Bone Identification by Chemical and Microscopic Methods
Fontan, CR
Graduate student, Washington State University, Wash.

Burnham, JT
Graduate student, Washington State University, Wash.

Preston-Burnham, J
Graduate student, Washington State University, Wash.

(Received 27 March 1975; accepted 17 June 1975)

Abstract

Traditionally, identification of skeletal remains has been based on distinguishing morphological characteristics. In the past three decades there has been a greater development of techniques used in identification. In part, this effort has been stimulated by the practical need to identify a large number of dead from major wars and by the employment of statistical methods such as multivariate analysis. In addition, new morphological criteria are continually being discovered which will aid the investigator by assigning a racial or sexual classification to bones. Examples of these are tear duct size [2] and total subperiosteal area of the second metacarpal [3]. Although the latter technique is not fully developed, it offers great promise.

Keywords:

Paper ID: JFS10502J
DOI: 10.1520/JFS10502J
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