Testing landmark redundancy for sex-based shape analysis of the adult human os coxa.

Objectives: To test the individual effectiveness of common landmarks used in sex estimation of whole adult coxal bones in sex-based shape analysis and propose a method to determine how many principal components of sex-based shape to include for discriminant function analysis.

Methods: Three-dimensional models (NextEngine desktop laser scanner) of left and right os coxae from 396 individuals (William Bass Skeletal Collection, Forensic Anthropology Centre, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN) were subjected to shape analysis using 32 landmarks (Landmark 3.6, Institute for Data Analysis and Visualization).