Forensic Anthropology

Forensic anthropologists identify individuals involved in crimes of cataclysmic accidents, when the only remains available are bones. By examining the skull and long bones, noting their characteristics and taking careful measurements, the sex, age, phenotype (race) and stature of the individual can be determines/estimated.

A previous posting to this blog covered the students in their groups as they were taking their measurements and making their observations.

In this activity teams of four students were give skeletal pieces (a skull, a leg bone, an arm bone, and a pelvis girdle), their task to identify the sex, race, stature and age of their individual. Each team then reported out their findings in class today, and all teams explained their findings expertly!. Great job ladies and gentlemen.

All the students will write up individual lab reports including each group's findings in their final report.

Claire and James listen as Abby presents her finding based on her observations of the long bones from her skeleton.

Claire explains how she used geological evidence and an acid assay to verify the location of the ancient burial site from which their skeleton was recovered.

Jaems describes his findings based on the examination of the skull from his group's skeleton as Liam, Jesse and Joanna look on and take notes on James' finding.

James and Liam refer to their notes on the skeleton examined by their group.

Liam reviews his notes on the observations and his conclusions he could make from his examination of the humerus (upper arm bone) from his groups skeleton.

Matthew describes his groups find based on observations of the skull from his group's skeleton. James on his right was responsible for examining the skeleton's femur.

Katie discusses her finding by pointing out the pertinent characteristic's of her skeleton's skull, while Patrick gets ready to present his finding based on the femur he examined.

Katie explains her conclusiond based on her examination and measurements of the pelvic girdle in front of her on the desk.

Kristen describes the characteristics of her findings regarding the skull from the skeleton exumed from the burial site verified by Claire earlier. Kailey prepares to explain her conclusions from the examination of the partial pelvic girdle from the same skeleton.

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Vivian explains how she examined the dental arch before her to determine the phenotype (race) of the individual.

Forensics Class beginning their "Bones" Activity

     Today in the forensic science class, the students began their "hands on" investigation. In this exercise the students were divided into six investigative teams composed of four students. Each team had skeletal remains to identify.

     One team was given the task if identifying the geological characteristics of a site in which skeletal remains believed to be those of a "Viking" were found. This team also received casts of three maxilla (upper jaw) bones and had the task of identifying the race and sex of the artifacts

     The other five investigative teams has various part of the skeletal remains of an individual. Three of the teams received a skull, a full pelvis and sacrum, and two long bones (femur or tibia and a humerus). One team ("Viking" remains) had half a pelvis, skull, and a long bone.  The last team had only a pelvis and two long bones (humerus and femur). These teams, to the best of their ability are to take measurements and observations to determine the race, age, sex, and stature.

     When each team has completed their observations they will share out their findings with the class.

     A small footnote, this weekend is Homecoming Weekend, and today was "Uniform Reversal Day". On this day male athletes wear female team uniforms and visa versa, this explains some of the "diverse" wardrobe choices seen in some of these pictures.

Alex and an unseen team member are examining the mandible's articulation with the cranium.

Claire and Vivian were member of the "geological team." Here they are examining one of the maxilla samples they wer also given to identify.

Liam, James, Katie and her aide Emilie are examining the skull and humerus of their remains. My appologies Katie for only getting the top of her head in the picture......my bad :-(

Jesse is showing Joanna how he thinks the head of the femur of their skeletal remains would articulate with the pelvis.

Joanna, Francie, and an unidentifiable Rangers fan examine their skeletal remains.

Katie seems to be measuring the nasal area of her skeletal remains skull, while Emma records Katie's finding in their data tables.

Kristen is comparing her skull to the diagrams distributed as a resource, to ensure that she is accurately measuring the correct anatomical feature.

Matt and his team members are examining the gross features of their skeletal remains femur.

Patrick is using the large calipers to measure the overall length of their remains femur as Robert and Kristen look on.

Emma and Katie taking and recording skull measurements.

Drugs from Unusual Matrices: Using Bone Tissue as a Forensic Toxicology Specimen

A forensic toxicologist looks at toxics in the body. Due to biochemistry, bones can be looked upon for historical and recent drug history, many animals’ bones have been tested upon but there are few humans have been studied.  They are many techniques have been used to identify drugs within bones, including ELISA (Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and liquid gas chromatography. Vitro studies have shown that drugs that were found in the blood were detected in the bone; however, there are different concentrations. A case study in 2005 shown that higher concentration were found when slivers of the bone was incubated in methanol rather than incubating the whole bone in water.  Unfortunately there is little evidence to indicate the reactivity of the drugs that were extracted by the ELISA.

            Whilst using anima models, vitro experiments have shown that most drug detections have a variation with bone type and concentration found. Higher levels of drugs are commonly found in spongy bone. Decomposition could also effect the concentration of drugs.

            There is little research on drug detection in skeletal tissues after burial except for one case were it was impossible to tell weather the drugs were pharmaceutical or from heroin. ELIZA has been investigating the detection in bone tissue rather than bone.

            Looking forward more research is needed if the class of drug impacts the timing for it to be absorbed by the bone. When the bones are buried does the surrounding factors alter the concentration of drugs with in the bone?

            Testing whether drugs are found in bones will help solve many crimes and indicated if the cause of death was drug related even if a skeleton remains.  If more research is conducted, then there is a greater chance of identifying a skeleton by looking at the concentration of drugs that remain in their bones. Also, if environmental influences affect the levels of toxicology then examining the bones can report can help determine time of death.

Overall I thought the article was well written but I wished there was more evidence to support some of the facts. The article could have been improved if the authors conducted their own experiments rather then just saying there is little evidence or no evidence.

Gautam, Lata, Claire Newland, and Michael D. Cole. "Forensic Magazine." Forensic Magazine. N.p., 07 Mar. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2013.

http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2013/07/drugs-unusual-matrices-using-bone-tissue-forensic-toxicology-specimen#.Ullrkj17Tao

Tools of the Trade: Dealing with Unusual surfaces

James McDermott 10/14/13

Tools of the Trade: Dealing with Unusual surfaces. 

       In this article the author, Dick Warrington writes that lifting prints from a surface isn’t that strenuous, even if it’s lifting prints from unusual surfaces. The author states that the only two surfaces water and air are the only surfaces not permitting identification of fingerprints. At first Mr. Warrington goes into detail about multi-textured and multi- contoured surfaces. Starting out broadly the author starts to get into more detail about these multi textured and multi-contoured surfaces and how to lift prints from these surfaces. Polyethylene Tape is used to lift prints from multi-curved surfaces such as light bulbs and doorknobs. This tape works well on these surfaces because it stretches and conforms to the shape of these surfaces without distorting the latent print. Another way to discover prints is to use DIFF-Lift Tape. This tape is 20 times stronger than regular tape, gives much better results. DIFF-Lift molds itself to textured surfaces to get all of the details of the powdered print. It can be used to lift prints from vinyl car dashes, pebble-grained leather, textured plastic, metal, paper, and wood. When getting into Adhesives such as duct tape, masking tape, and mailing labels, it can be developed and lifted, but it’s often quite difficult to do so. The key is to use a specially designed product, called an adhesive side powder, for the job. The adhesive side powder is mixed with equal parts water and dispersing agent until it reaches a consistency similar to thin paint. The mixture is then applied to the adhesive side of the tape or label using an all-purpose brush. After the solution sets for 10–15 seconds, it’s rinsed with water. If it sets too long, it will fill in the background. When you find dust fingerprints and footprints, collect them with an electrostatic dust lifter such as the PathFinder. The PathFinder is a wireless device that can lift prints from most surfaces, including wooden window ledges, carpet, tile, and upholstery. Lastly, a hard surface to investigate is a wet surface. When using a small particle reagent (SPR) it is easy to lift prints. SPR is like liquid fingerprinting powder and can be used on non-porous surfaces. Spray SPR onto wet evidence then rinse with water. The reagent adheres to the latent print. This article is very interesting and informative. Mr. Warrington explains how easy it is to decipher latent prints from any surface.

Posted for J. McDermott by C. Ippolito

From Click to Capture: Making the Case for Digital Composite Images

Krissy Marrinan

Forensics

October 12^th 2013

Current Event:

From Click to Capture: Making the Case for Digital Composite Images

http://www.forensicmag.com/articles/2013/07/click-capture-making-case-digital-composite-images#.UlnKyhbU7zI

            In this article the author, Michael M. Streed address how the identification tool of facial composite images is underused.  Sketch artists are trained to draw detailed imaged from eye-witlessness yet their talent is underused and expensive. Many polices offices have opted to hire a cheaper untrained artist, or use other methods of identifications. But another option, which has recently become popular, is the option to having a digital facial composite sketch artist, where they recreate the face online or through a program.  Though at the end of the article Streed begins to state the downfalls of the digital programs, stating that thought transferring from pencils to pixels is easy its has glitches as well. Like the pixel images is not very clear, and how the interview has to be completed before the identification process can really become effective, and sometimes the software can be really pricy and you might end up paying for more than what you received.  Thought there are some negatives to the programs, Streed makes it clear that this technology may be lacking in some areas it’s making the road to future identification easier.

            Because of the new technology it affects a lot of people and certain of parts of the economy. With police stations and investigation forces buying these programs, it’s putting people out to business and making it harder for them to find work. Though there is a benefit to saving money on composite sketches, police stations can put more money and effort into other parts of there facility that may need it more or that could benefit from new materials. It’s like a give and take situation.

            Though this article gives an accurate description of how it affects the world and police stations it gives no description of the actual program itself. If Streed would have included this, I think that it would have enhanced the article and brought it readers to deeper understanding of how and what the actual program does and how it helps the police department. I also thought that the author, whenever he made his argument he would go back and state a point against his agreement, confusing me while I was reading. But overall I thought the points and understanding of the program and how it would effect the police departments.