Morphometric Assessment Methods for Estimation of Sexual Dimorphism from Cranial Occipital Condyles

DOI :
Tweet about this on TwitterShare on FacebookEmail this to someoneShare on Google+

Meera Jacob & Bindhu S.

Summary

Identification of fragmentary human remains is an integral par of medico legal investigations. Occipital region is commonly not affected in traumatic injuries and accidents due to its secluded position which makes it the integral part in determination of sex in the absence of entire skeleton. Occipital condylar region is also the most common area for degenerative and neoplastic diseases. So thorough knowledge of anatomy of occipital condyle is very essential during surgical interventions. 86 skulls were studied from osteological collections of Department of Anatomy, Yenepoya Medical College. Maximum length and breadth of the occipital condyle, anterior intercondylar distance and posterior intercondylar distance was measured with the help of vernier callipers. Descriptive statistics was calculated for the parameters considered. Metric data of right and left sides were compared with student t test and p value was calculated.All data obtained was subjected for discriminant function analysis to derive the statistical model. All the measurements were significantly high in males compared to females. Condylar length and width, anterior and posterior intercondylar distance can be used to derive formula for determination of sex in south Indian population with an accuracy of 66.3 %.

KEY WORDS: Occipital condyle; Sex determination; Discriminant function analysis.

How to cite this article

MEERA J. & BINDHU, S. Morphometric assessment methods for estimation of sexual dimorphism from cranial occipital condyles. Int. J. Morphol., 40(4):1128-1133, 2022.