NCJ Number
212636
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 50 Issue: 6 Dated: November 2005 Pages: 1303-1309
Date Published
November 2005
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This study tested the accuracy of the revised maxillary suture method in estimating age at death, using a genetically diverse skeletal sample of 155 maxillae (96 males and 59 females, ages 26 to 100 years) whose age at death was known.
Abstract
The original and revised maxillary suture methods developed by Mann and colleagues in the late 1980s and early 1990s have the same premise, i.e., that morphological age is evident in the obliteration of the maxillary sutures. No systematic independent study has tested the accuracy of the revised maxillary suture method to determine whether the revisions were successful in producing a more effective age estimation method when applied to samples other than that upon which the method was built. The current study focused on whether the revised maxillary suture method, developed on samples of North Americans of European and African descent with mostly 19th century birth years, could estimate age at death for other samples, including those derived from genetically different populations. The sample for the study was from the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Results from a prior study of the original maxillary suture method were compared with the results of the current study, which used the revised method. The revised method was determined to be superior, in that it performed best for older individuals; however, both methods tended to underestimate the age for individuals of all age groups, albeit less so with the revised method. The researchers advise that the revised method is useful for age estimation when it is used in conjunction with other estimators. 6 tables, 3 figures, and 23 references