The main goal of Forensic Anthropology is to identify unknown individuals using the information that we gather from their skeletons. Bones can tell us many things about a person and the first pieces of information that the expert tries to gather are ancestry, age, stature and sex. With this information, we build what we call the “biological profile” of a specific individual and try to identify him/her.
This session will focus on how we can understand if the skeleton is male or female. This is done through the study of several bones, like the pelvis. You will learn what characteristics we use to estimate the biological sex and how to use those characteristics to draw a conclusion.
Dr Julieta Gomez Garcia-Donas – University of Dundee
Julieta Gómez García-Donas is a lecturer at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) in the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Dundee. Before coming to Dundee, she studied at the University of Edinburgh and worked at the University of Kent (Canterbury). In Dundee, she is involved in teaching and supervising students working on research projects related to Forensic Anthropology focusing on the identification of unknown individuals through the information gathered from the skeleton.
-
Fingerprint identifcation
This series of activities will take you through the process of collecting and analysing fingerprints. Discover which features differ in fingerprints and how they are used to identify individuals. -
Identifying ourselves, how are our bodies the same and different?
In this activity you can learn how our bodies can be similar and how they might differ. We will look at human anatomy, our bones and how to collect footwear marks.