Sex prediction by discriminant function with central portion measures of innominate bones

In anthropological studies the innominate bone is the most important element in sexing human skeletal remains. 260 innominate bones from four different populations were analysed by discriminant analysis, in order to evaluate the significance of five metrical variables of the central portion of the innominate bone. The variables selected were: the cotylosciatic index, the acetabular diameter, and the ischium length. We found that the discriminant function, using this set of variables, was also useful for sexing samples from populations other than the one used for its calculation.