The art of identification

I hope you didn’t miss us too much, but if you did, no worries as we’re back for week 2 of the assignment!

Before we get on to question 4,why don’t we do just a quick run through on what is forensic anthropology really about

Anthropology is the scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural development of humans.

Forensic anthrolopology
Forensic anthropology is the application of  anthropology to criminal investigations.
Identifying unknown individuals is a key part of forensic anthropology.
Anthropologists assist in identifications primarily by constructing a biological profile. This includes estimating age, sex, stature, and ancestry, as well as identifying specific characteristics, like diseases or injuries.

Lets get on to question 4 then,

In question 4, we were asked to identify the victims using the evidence discovered so far, however we were told not to use the dental aspects provided.

As mentioned above, using methods of forensic anthropology on the evidence that was found, we can identify various characteristics of the victims such sex and race

-The race of the adult victim can be determined by examining certain parts of the skull, such as the openings in eye and nose in the skull that vary among different races.

-The sex of the adult victim could easily be determined by the skull of the victim, ie my examining the general appearance, supra orbital ridges, orbits, glabella, zygomatic arches, mastoid process , palate, forehead,external occipital protuberances as well as the mandible.  (how to differentiate between male and female using these aspects of the skull were explained in Question 2 of part 1 of the assignment )

-The sex of the other victims could also be determined by examining the pieces of jaw (mandibles) that were found.


Forensic facial reconstruction

Forensic facial reconstruction techniques could also be used for identification of the adult victim.

(Forensic facial reconstruction is the process of recreating the face of an individual (whose identity is often not known) from their skeletal remains)

This is because both the skull and pieces of the jaw of the adult victim have been found, and hence features like

• The brow ridge 
• The distance between the eye orbits
• The shape of the nasal chamber
• The shape and projection of the nasal bones
• The chin's form
• The overall profile of the facial bone

Of the adult victim could be used to identify the adult victim’s facial appearance.

DNA profiling
DNA profiling could also be a method of identification of the victims. Samples of DNA of the victims can be obtained from the bones and be used to identify the victims. The DNA is then subjected to polymerase chain reaction (PCR), where it mimics the biological process of DNA replication, but confines it to specific DNA sequences of interest. After a convoluted process involving activation of DNA, denaturation, annealing, and elongation, the specific sequence will be accumulated in billions of copies.

While a lot of DNA contains information for a certain function, there is some called junk DNA, which is currently used for human identification. At some special locations (called loci) in the junk DNA, predictable inheritance patterns were found to be useful in determining biological relationships. These locations contain specific DNA markers that DNA scientists use to identify individuals. In a routine DNA paternity test, the markers used are Short Tandem Repeats (STRs), short pieces of DNA that occur in highly differential repeat patterns among individuals.

Each person’s DNA contains two copies of these markers—one copy inherited from the father and one from the mother. Within a population, the markers at each person’s DNA location could differ in length and sometimes sequence, depending on the markers inherited from the parents. 

The combination of marker sizes found in each person makes up his/her unique genetic profile. When determining the relationship between two individuals, their genetic profiles are compared to see if they share the same inheritance patterns at a statistically conclusive rate.