The examination of skeletal remains to determine identity, ancestry, sex, age and cause of death in cases of legal interest.
Facts
What It ExaminesHuman skeletal remains, read for biological profile including age, sex, ancestry and stature, for signs of trauma, and for features that support identification of the dead. 1 Formalized YearSourced to the subject's own accountDates to Thomas Dwight's 1878 essay The Identification of the Human Skeleton: A Medico-Legal Study; the discipline professionalized later, with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences anthropology section (1972) and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (1977). Known LimitationSourced to the subject's own accountAge, sex, ancestry and stature estimates drawn from skeletal remains are statistical approximations with real margins of error, not certainties; a 2009 study found even favorable FORDISC classifications carried only a 1 percent confidence level. 2 Sources
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