Preliminary sex and stature estimation of the humerus for a contemporary Australian sub-population.

Assessment of biological profiles (ancestry, biological sex, age and stature) of skeletal remains assist with the identification of missing persons. Standards for estimating the biological sex and/or stature of an individual from the humerus (arm bone) for an Australian population were yet to be developed. This research assessed preexisting equations that were incorrectly applied to the Australian population and developed context appropriate and accurate biological sex and stature estimation equations for the humerus specifically for a Queensland population. Samples consisted of humeral Post Mortem Computed Tomography (PMCT) Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) datasets from a contemporary European-descent Australian adult sub-population, aged between 17-90 years, obtained from the Brisbane Mortuary and QUT's Medical Engineering Research Facility from 2016 – 2018. Threshold based segmentation was conducted to form 3D models of the humeri, which was then measured according to the five standardised measurements of the humeri. This project presents the results of the preliminary biological sex and stature estimation equations developed and their utility to contemporary missing persons casework.

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This research directly contributes to the identification process by improving methods for analysing human remains.