Anthropological Identification: General and Specific Signs
📌 Medical-Legal Anthropology seeks to establish identity through individualizing signs, categorized as General Signs (secondary, non-certain) and Primary Signs (certainty).
🦴 General signs include birthmarks, distinct ear attachment, tattoos, professional markings (like calloused hands), malformations (e.g., polydactyly), and scars, none of which guarantee certainty of identity.
👍 Primary signs providing certainty include DNA analysis, dental arcade analysis, and fingerprint analysis.
🤏 Specific signs offer a high degree of certainty, with DNA being the most definitive primary sign.

DNA Analysis and Sampling
🧬 Human DNA shares 99.7% similarity across all individuals, with the remaining 0.3% being unique enough for differentiation.
🩸 DNA can be extracted from various biological samples, including saliva, bones (from osteocytes), blood (from white blood cells/leukocytes), and hair (ideally with the root bulb).
🔬 For hair without roots, only mitochondrial DNA can typically be extracted, not nuclear cellular DNA.
🧪 The primary laboratory technique for DNA amplification is PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), often followed by analysis using microsatellite multiplexing, which examines short tandem repeats (sequences of 1 to 6 base pairs).

Sex Determination Methods
🔎 Sex identification relies initially on genital organs if the remains are intact.
💀 In cases of carbonization with incomplete combustion, internal organs like the uterus may be preserved due to the insulating effect of adipose tissue.
🦴 The skull and pelvis are considered the top (Top One) indicators for sex determination, while the mandible offers about 81.7% accuracy based on measurements like condylar width and interforaminal distance.
📏 Skull differences include the shape of the mentum (square in males, rounded in females) and the prominence of the supraorbital ridge (salient in males, flat in females).

Pelvic Differences for Sex Identification
🧍 Male pelvises are generally more rugose with marked muscle insertions, while female pelvises are smoother.
💖 Key differences in the female pelvis include a more circular superior opening, a smaller ilium, a larger obturator foramen (oval/large in males, triangular/small in females), and a wider sub-pubic angle (more acute in males).

Race Identification Parameters
🌍 Race identification utilizes skull morphology (cephalic index), facial angles (e.g., Jacquard, Clavet, Curvier), and dental anatomy.
🦷 Dental anatomy classifications include mamilonada (typical of Caucasians/whites), estrelada (typical of Negroids/Blacks), and intermediate (typical of Asians).
📏 Skull shapes classified using indices include dolichocephalic (long and narrow), mesocephalic (medium/ideal), and brachycephalic (short and wide).

Age Determination Techniques
👶 Age estimation is classified using forensic nomenclature spanning from Embryo (first month) to Senile Elderly (over 80 years).
🦴 Age in children (0-12 years) is estimated via bone development, including the fusion of cranial sutures (Fontanelles) and metaphyseal closure (epiphyseal disc ossification).
💪 Between 14 and 21 years, wrist X-rays are crucial for assessing articular ossification and epiphyseal growth.
🌟 Dental analysis (wear, radiography, shape) is considered more precise and reliable than skeletal analysis for age determination, trending towards becoming a primary method.

Stature Determination
📏 Determining stature in living individuals is straightforward via measuring tape; for cadavers, specialized measurement tables are used, measuring from the heel to the top of the head while the body is on a measuring board.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Primary identification methods that provide certainty are DNA analysis, dental arcade analysis, and papiloscopy (fingerprints).
➡️ For sex determination in adult skeletal remains, the skull and pelvis are the most critical structures to analyze.
➡️ The epiphyseal disc/cartilaginous growth plate in long bones is key to determining age in children up to age 12 due to its changing state of ossification.
➡️ Dental analysis is currently favored as the most precise and reliable method compared to skeletal analysis for age determination in forensic anthropology.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Oct 10, 2025, 13:27 UTC