Study Guide Flashcards
(58 cards)
What are the major landmarks of cranial skeletal anatomy?
Cranium + mandible = skull
Orbit = eye socket
Anterior nasal aperture = nose hole
External acoustic meatus = ear hole
What are the major bones of cranial skeletal anatomy?
Foramen magnum
Maxilla
Nasal bones (2)
Zygomatic arch (2)
Mastoid process (2)
What are the major sutures of cranial skeletal anatomy?
Coronal suture
Sagittal suture
Temporal (squamosal) suture
Lambdoidal suture
What are the middle ear bones?
Malleus
Incus
Stapes
What is the human dental formula?
Dental formula – 2:1:2:3
Incisors
Canines
Premolars
Molars
Vertebre Column
7 Cervical
12 Thoracic
5 Lumbar
1 Sacrum
Coccyx (3-5 fused
coccygeal vertebrae)
Hands and Wrist
8 Carpals
5 Metacarpals
14 Phalanges
Foot and Ankle
7 Tarsals
5 Metatarsals
14 Phalanges
Forensic Analysis Stages
1) What is it?
2) How old is it?
3) What is the taphonomic context?
medicolegal significance
refers to something that has both medical and legal importance
Taphonomy
study of how organic material decays
Forensic Taphonomy
how postmortem processes affect the preservation of human remains and help to reconstruct the circumstances of death
What circumstances surrounding the death of an individual generally qualify as medicolegally significant?
Identification of deceased
Investigation of suspicious deaths
Various ways in which forensic anthropologists assess whether sample materials are bone
Typically assess if material is osseous via macroscopic examination
Most non-osseous materials require no further analysis
Other methods
Radiology (x-rays)
Histology (microscopes)
Elemental analysis (is it made of calcium, lead, gold?)
Various ways in which forensic anthropologists assess whether sample bone is human
Typically assess if bone is human via macroscopic examination
Morphological differences due to growth, biomechanics, diet
Most nonhuman bone requires no further analysis
Various ways in which forensic anthropologists assess the temporal origins of human skeletal remains
Typically assess temporal origin using taphonomy and the archaeological context
Other methods
Bicultural information
Dendrochronology
Radiocarbon dating
What is the temporal interval within which medicolegal interest typically presides?
Medicolegal interest varies, typically
less than 50-150 years old
Define and describe the postmortem interval (PMI)
time between individual’s death and discovery of remains
Highly specialized
Why is it difficult to establish PMI?
decomposition rate is affected by multiple factors, especially temperature
Describe how PMI is established in the first few hours and days after death
Initial PMI estimation (hours/days)
“Three mortises”
Supravital reactions
Nomogram methods
Describe how PMI is established in the first few weeks and months after death.
Insect developmental timings (duration of stages from egg to adult)
Insect succession (predictable patterns of insect assemblages)
Define the Megyesi and colleagues (2005) total body score method.
Total body score method estimates PMI via degree of soft tissue change throughout decomposition
Define accumulated degree days (ADD)
Accumulated degree days (ADD) –
heat energy required for an organism to develop from one life stage to the next
How does the forensic anthropologist determine the ADD?
calculating the mean temperature during the day and subtracting it from the threshold temperature
