Macrobutton Dofieldclick [Student's Last Name] Essay

Additional skeletal clues referring to development are that female skeletons tend to mature faster than males, with a hardening of the cartilage occurring at a younger age, by age 18 for females and age 21 for males. This may be due to the reproductive advantage conferred on the species if a female body is strong enough to support a child in utero at an earlier age (Liu, Sartor and Nader).

The age of the skeleton also provides clues relating to development. While younger children and infants may be hard to tell apart in gender, the elderly skeleton may be show osteoporosis in the female skeleton as compared to age-matched males, as the lack of estrogen contributes to decreasing bone density with age. The male skeleton, due to the presence of testosterone, may simply not degenerate as fast in terms of osteoporosis as a female's would (Kim, Sung and Song).

While the gold standard in differentiating males from females based on skeletal analysis is examination of the pelvic bones, the lack of this feature does not mean that the gender could not therefore be determined. This review has outlined different skeletal features that can be used as clues in gender differentiation.Skull and mandible measurements are larger and more pronounced in males than females. Males tend to have longer and broader bones, while females have narrower and sharper bones and bone ridges except for the pelvic bones. Females bones tend to ossify sooner than males bones. Female skeletons may show evidence of osteoporosis at mature ages due to estrogen loss. While all of these features are clues, they are not definitive. Culture, diet, genetics, and other environmental influences are play a part in the determination of how an individual develops. However, at a baseline, features related to childbearing and overall evolutionary roles for males and females do have demonstrated characteristics to be found in the human skeleton relative to size and function.

References

Baum, NH and CA. Crespi. "Testosterone replacement in elderly men." Geriatrics 62.9 (2007): 15-18.

Kim, T, et al. "Sex Difference between Body Composition and Weight-Bearing Bone Mineral Density in Korean Adult Twins: Healthy Twin Study." Calcified Tissue International 88.6 (2011): 495-502.

Liu, D, et al. "Skeletal muscle gene expression in response to resistance exercise: sex specific regulation." BMC Genomics (2011): PMCID: PMC3091777 .

Silva, RF, et al. "Human identification based on cranial computed.....