Evaluation of morphological and histological adult skeletal age-at-death estimation techniques using ribs
Dudar, J.C.; Pfeiffer, S.; Saunders, S.R.
Journal of Forensic Sciences 38(3): 677-685
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0022-1198 PMID: 8515218 Document Number: 417995
Adult age-at-death estimation standards were applied to an independent sample (N = 50, 55) of documented ages 17.5 to 95 years. Estimates derived from the sternal rib end morphological and from the cortical rib histological techniques were compared with each other and to the documented ages. Comparisons to the documented ages reveal no statistically significant differences between the techniques. However, the comparison of each individual's estimates show a poor correlation (r = 0.54) despite the equal performance of the age estimations on the entire sample. Averaging of the two rib age estimates results in an estimate with a stronger Pearson's r (0.86) and a lower standard error of the estimate (7.5 years).