Anterior Nasal Spine (ANS)
Definition
A morphoscopic trait: the bony projection at the inferior border of the nasal aperture, scored on a 0-3 scale from absent to strongly projecting. Tends toward pronounced expression in European-ancestry populations and absent or slight in many African-ancestry populations.
- Scoring scale
- 0 to 3 (absent to strongly projecting)
- Location
- Inferior border of the nasal aperture
- Trait type
- Morphoscopic ancestry indicator
- Used with
- FORDISC and cranial morphology ancestry estimation
Common questions
Why is a single trait like ANS not used alone for ancestry estimation?+
Any one morphoscopic trait overlaps across population groups and varies with individual variation, so ANS is scored alongside several other cranial traits and combined statistically rather than relied on in isolation.
What does a mid-range ANS score usually indicate?+
A mid-range score reflects moderate projection that does not strongly favour either extreme expression, and on its own it contributes only weak weight to an ancestry estimate until combined with the full trait battery.
Related terms
- Discriminant Function Analysis
- A multivariate statistical technique that derives linear combinations of measurements to maximally separate two or more groups (male and female). The resulting...
- FORDISC
- Forensic Discriminant Computer program, developed by Ousley and Jantz at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Performs discriminant-function analysis on user-supplied craniometric measurements...
- Forensic Data Bank (FDB)
- The modern documented skeletal sample within FORDISC, built from cases submitted by US medical examiners since the late 1980s. Provides reference data...
- Howells Craniometric Database
- A dataset of 82 standard craniometric measurements on over 2,500 adult skulls from more than 30 population groups worldwide, assembled by W.W....
- Malar Tubercle
- A small bony protuberance on the inferior surface of the malar (zygomatic) bone, scored as present or absent. Higher frequency in East...
- Morphoscopic Traits
- Non-metric cranial features assessed on ordinal or nominal scales (anterior nasal spine, malar tubercle, nasal bone shape, post-bregmatic depression, inferior nasal aperture...
- Population Affinity
- The preferred modern forensic-anthropological term for the relationship between an unidentified individual's skeletal morphology and a modern reference population. Replaces the older...
- Posterior Probability
- The probability, returned by FORDISC, that the unknown skull belongs to the classified reference group, given that it must belong to one...
- Typicality Probability
- In FORDISC analysis, the probability that the unknown skull is a typical member of the best-matching reference group, based on Mahalanobis distance....