Skip to content

Femoral Head Vertical Diameter

Definition

The superoinferior diameter of the femoral head, the most reliable single postcranial sex estimation measurement. US cut-offs (Stewart 1979): below 43.5 mm female, above 47.5 mm male, between 43.5-47.5 mm indeterminate. Indian populations: approximately 2-4 mm smaller on average; adjust cut-offs accordingly.

Related terms

Amelogenin
A gene on both the X and Y chromosomes used for sex determination in forensic STR kits. The X-allele amplicon is approximately...
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...
Geometric Morphometrics
A method that captures biological shape as a configuration of landmark coordinates, removes position/orientation/scale differences by Procrustes superimposition, and analyses the residual...
Humeral Head Vertical Diameter
The superoinferior diameter of the humeral head. US cut-offs (France 1998): below 43 mm female, above 47 mm male. Second most commonly...
Khanpetch 2012
A South-East Asian long-bone sex estimation study by Khanpetch and colleagues providing population-specific discriminant functions and cut-offs for Thai and South-East Asian...
Procrustes Superimposition
The statistical procedure in geometric morphometrics that removes non-shape variation (translation, rotation, scale) from a set of landmark coordinates, leaving only shape...
Scapular Glenoid Breadth
The anteroposterior or superoinferior diameter of the glenoid fossa on the scapula. Sexually dimorphic; discriminant functions by Dittrick and Suchey (1986) achieve...
Stewart 1979 Cut-Offs
The original US femoral head diameter sex classification thresholds derived by T.D. Stewart from a US military and dissection-room sample. Widely cited...
Sub-Adult Sex Problem
The inability of classical morphological and metric osteological methods to determine sex in individuals below approximately 12-15 years of age, because skeletal...

Explained in

Your journey to becoming a forensic professional starts here.

Practice with mock tests, learn from structured notes, and get your questions answered by a global forensic community, all in one place.