CANINE SEX ESTIMATION AND SEXUAL DIMORPHISM IN THE COLLECTION OF IDENTIFIED SKELETONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA, WITH AN APPLICATION IN A ROMAN CEMETERY FROM FARO, PORTUGAL

Abstract

Sexual estimation of human remains is an aspect of great importance for the characterization of demographic profiles in bioarcheology and to identify individuals in forensic cases. The aims of this paper are threefold: to generate population‐specific formulae for sex estimation based on permanent canine metrics, to evaluate the dental sexual dimorphism and to develop a Bayesian approach in a sample of 115 individuals from the documented human sample housed in the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Discriminant functions and logistic regression equations were developed and posterior probabilities were calculated. Formulae offered high percentages of correct sex assignation (77.42‐86.54% for the discriminant functions and 81.63‐85.18% for the logistic regression), while posterior probabilities ranged between 0.71 and 0.85. The procedures were then applied in an archaeological sample of 32 individuals from the Roman (I‐III century AC) cemetery of Ossonoba Romana (Faro, Portugal) in order to test the relevance of their use in this geographical‐related sample. The results of correct estimation are higher than 75% for three formulae and four combinations of variables in the Bayesian approach. Although phenotypic variation may be a factor influencing the sex estimations, canine odontometrics are powerful tools when previously tested, and can increase the amount of data obtained for paleodemographic and forensic purposes. In this case, some of the methods developed for the modern sample can be used in archaeological samples and in spatial and temporal‐related skeletal collections.

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