Forensic anthropologists are "bone detectives" who help police solve complex cases involving unidentified human remains. The techniques which physical anthropologists use to discover information about early humans from their skeletons are also used to discover the identity of the victims of accidents, fires, plane crashes, war, or crimes such as murder.
A forensic anthropologist can tell a lot about a person from bones: They can determine if the person was a male or female.
They are able to approximate how old the person was by examining the joints, bones, and teeth. A childs skull has more separation between the bone plates.
The smoother the skull, the older the person. The examination of wrist development for children under thirteen is another reliable method of determining age.
Forensic scientists use formulas to determine height based on the length of leg and arm bones. The longest bone, the femur, is best for this, but estimations can also be made from the metacarpals in the hand.
They are able to tell the persons weight by the wear on the bones at certain points. They may be able to identify the racial group to which the person belongs by examining the width and height of the nose.
Facial or head hair, when found with the skeleton, can also help determine race. Caucasian nose holes are triangular, Negroid's square, and Mongoloid's diamond-shaped.
Negroid femur bones are also straighter than other racial groups. They may guess what occupation the person had. For example, if the person played an instrument such as a flute or clarinet, the teeth and bones around the mouth will be affected.
They can determine a persons shape. Ridges where muscle was attached to the bone show the persons physique.
They can tell whether the person was right or left-handed. There would be more muscle attachment on the bones on the dominant side.
They are able to determine if he was ever injured or fractured a bone during his lifetime. Detected bone injuries can be compared with a persons medical X-rays to confirm identity.
They also can determine if the person died violently. This is determined by looking for signs of trauma. These include
stab marks, marks on the skull, broken bones, and bullets or pellets in or near the body.
If the person was strangled, the bone from the throat (the hyoid bone) could be fractured.
They are able to approximate when the individual died.
Females lose one pound of tissue a day during decomposition; males three pounds a day.
Acidic soil accelerates decomposition; alkaline soil retards it. Most of these are class characteristics (such as age, sex, race, and height), but some are individual characteristics (such as trauma).
Courts would probably never rely independently on forensic anthropological identification.
Police may also turn to anthropologists for facial reconstruction, recreating a face from the skeleton to help them identify the deceased.
http://www.forensic-medecine.info/forensic-anthropology.html
