Sex estimation in a contemporary Spanish population: cranial and dental anthropometry

Sex estimation of skeletal remains is an essential step in the reconstruction of the biological profile of unknown individuals in medico-legal death investigations and archaeological contexts. However, the skeletons are often incomplete. When the pelvis is absent, the skull is widely considered to be the second-best indicator of sex. However, debate persists, and there is evidence that postcranial bones have more discriminatory power than the cranium. The present study was undertaken to determine the accuracy and reliability of a combination of skull and dental measurements for sex estimation in comparison with the cranial and dental methods separately, and to provide evidence as to whether the combination of these cranial measurements is more effective than postcranial bones alone for estimating sex when the pelvis is not available. The study sample comprised 70 individuals from the San José cemetery in Granada (Spain). Thirty cranial measurements and 44 dental measurements were examined using logistic regression analyses. These data showed that the combination of neurocranial and maxillary canine measurements provide the key dimensions as significant predictors of sex in this sample. For the pooled sexes, the overall correct sex allocation accuracies ranged from 76.0% to 92.3%. The present study shows that when using metric data, there is no evidence that the skull measures are better than those of the postcranial bones to estimate the sex. Only the combination of skull and maxillary canine measures provide similar sex discriminatory power to those of the postcranial skeleton.