Morphoscopic Traits
Definition
Non-metric cranial features assessed on ordinal or nominal scales (anterior nasal spine, malar tubercle, nasal bone shape, post-bregmatic depression, inferior nasal aperture morphology, etc.) that vary in frequency between population groups and supplement metric analysis in ancestry assessment.
Related terms
- Anterior Nasal Spine (ANS)
- A morphoscopic trait: the bony projection at the inferior border of the nasal aperture, scored on a 0-3 scale from absent to...
- 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...
- 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....
Explained in
- Ancestry from Cranial Morphology and FORDISCNon-metric cranial features assessed on ordinal or nominal scales (anterior nasal spine, malar tubercle, nasal bone shape, post-bregmatic depression, inferior...