Case Report

Activity 1.2.3: Bone Detectives

Introduction:
During this case, the bones of an undetermined person where found and needed to be
examined to find at the age, race, height, and gender. Using measurements that were found and
qualitative observations that were made the bones started to be classified and can now help
narrow down the list of people who the bones could belong to.

Summary Findings:
Through finding measurements, making qualitative observations, and measuring angles
the race, age, height, and gender were discovered.
The race of the unidentified set of bones was determined to be White by using the skull as
a major key to determine the race. By using the nasal bone structure it helped determine several
different traits that matched with the traits of another white persons skull bone structure. The
nasal traits that were looked at were the nasal index, nasal spine, nasal silling, and the nasal
height and width. All of the data fell under the white category with having a nasal index of 42
which is less than 48 along with having a prominent spine and a sharp ridge. Also, the femur was
a small help to determine the race because fingers were able to fit under the curvature of the bone
which only happens when the bones belong to someone who was white.
The height range of the unidentified set of bones was determined to be in a range between
55 and 58 by using the femur and humerus to determine the height. By finding the maximum
length of the femur by using a ruler and then using the length of the femur that was just found to
use in the regression formula for a white male which gives us a height range in centimeters.
Then by undergoing the same process for the humerus bone you also get another height range in
centimeters that almost the same as the last and then convert centimeters to inches and the height
range is given
The age range of the unidentified set of bones was determined to be in-between 20 to 25
years of age. The age was determined by qualitative observations that were taken from the
pelvis, humerus, and femur bones. The illium, ischium, and pubis on the pelvis bone were fully
ossified and had no evidence of epiphyseal unions. The upper epiphysis on the humerus bone
unites with shaft of the humerus. The condyles first joins the shaft on the femur bone. All if
these qualitative observations point to the age approximation of the age range between 20 to 25
years of age.
The gender of the unidentified set of bones was determined by both qualitative and
quantitative observations by looking and measuring the pelvis, skull, femur, and humerus bones.
The pelvis bone was measured by the angles of the Sub-Pubic and Greater Sciatic Notch angles
which helped determine the gender and was also measured to see how wide the pubis body width
was. The shape of the pelvis was also taken into consideration when determining gender. The
Skull was only based off of qualitative observations were made such as the edges and shape of
eye orbit, the shapes and description of nasal bone. The femur bone was quantitatively observed
for the vertical diameter of femoral head, 46 mm, biocondylar width, 80 mm, and maximum
length, 440 mm. The Humerus bone was also measured for its transverse diameter of humeral
head, 37 mm, and vertical diameter of humeral head, 40 mm, and maximum length of 318 mm,
and epicondylar width, 57 mm. All these qualitative and quantitative observations gave us the
traits that our data fit under to determine the gender.
The gel electrophoresis was ran to compare the DNA from missing persons that were
males in the local area and the skeleton found. After the comparison was finished thee results
showed that the skeleton found belong to missing person 2, Robert Jones. Robert Jones was a 24
year old newly married man that has been missing for around six months. The last thing that was
heard from him was when he was on the phone with his wife and was telling her that he was
going to stop by the gym before returning home but the gym has no record of him. His wife did
admit to them having problem adjusting to their new life but did not think he would run away.

Conclusion:
All of the findings that were found have determined the gender, age, height, and race of
the set of unidentified bones. To further examine and figure out who the bones belong to looking
through the missing persons reports and selecting all of those who fit under the description of the
data already found.