Sex determination from the hyoid bone by means of discriminant analysis

Sex diagnosis of skeletal remains represents one of the main problems in the forensic osteological practice. The purpose of the paper was to apply discriminant analysis as the method of its solution--in the set of measurements carried out on the hyoid bone. Classical procedure by R. A. Fisher yielded the set of linear discriminant functions applicable also in cases of injured bones, which is the relatively frequent situation. Information efficiency of the method proved to be quite satisfactory--in case of complete set of all six measurement level of misclassification should not reach over four per cent of the items to diagnose.