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Secular change of sexually dimorphic cranial variables in Euro-Americans and Germans

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Abstract

Crania are a reliable source for sex estimation in Euro-Americans, Europeans, and most other populations. Besides morphological assessments, the application of Fordisc® has become a useful tool within the last two decades, creating discriminant functions from morphometric data. Unfortunately, until now, white populations are mostly represented by measurements of American individuals. Therefore, classification rates are lower for European skulls than for Euro-Americans. The aim of this study was to show differences in sexual dimorphism between German and Euro-American crania. Furthermore, their secular change from the nineteenth to the twentieth century has been investigated. Analyses have been performed on glabella subtense (GLS), mastoid height (MDH), and bizygomatic breadth (ZYB). Fordisc® 3.1 was used to study sexual dimorphism and secular change, whereas SAS® was used to perform a two-level ANOVA to test for variation in sex dimorphism. Euro-Americans show greater dimorphism than Germans in all three measurements tested. This larger difference is even increasing from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth century in terms of GLS and MDH, while it stays almost the same in the present Europeans. These results explain the unsatisfying classification rates of German and other European crania on Fordisc®. Data collection for European Fordisc® samples is in progress and should improve the current situation.

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Acknowledgments

The majority of analysis and writing of this paper was accomplished while the first author was a research scholar in the Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee. She is grateful for the support of the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, which made the stay possible, and to the Department of Anthropology for accommodating her during that time. Furthermore, we would like to thank Dr. Birgit Großkopf, Thomas Struchholz, Helmuth Schlereth, Thomas Volk, Kevin Volk, Prof. Thomas Riepert, David Hunt, PhD, Douglas Owsley, PhD, Prof. Ursula Wittwer-Backofen, Katrin Koel-Abt, PhD, and Barbara Teßmann for providing skull material and Stephen D. Ousley, PhD and Taylor Yuzwa for collecting part of the German data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Rechtsmedizin der Universität Würzburg, Versbacher Straße 3, 97078, Würzburg, Germany

    Laura Manthey, Michael Bohnert & Katharina Jellinghaus

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Richard L. Jantz

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  1. Laura Manthey
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  2. Richard L. Jantz
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  3. Michael Bohnert
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  4. Katharina Jellinghaus
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Correspondence to Laura Manthey.

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Manthey, L., Jantz, R.L., Bohnert, M. et al. Secular change of sexually dimorphic cranial variables in Euro-Americans and Germans. Int J Legal Med 131, 1113–1118 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-016-1469-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-016-1469-2

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