The use of ventral fusion between sacral elements S1 and S2 as an additional age-at-death indicator in a black South African skeletal sample.

Despite indicating numerous demographic features such as sex, stature, and age; the sacrum remains a relatively insufficiently researched skeletal element. A set pattern of ossification and fusion of the sacrum makes it a useful bone for estimating age-at-death in unknown skeletal individuals. The aims of this study, which examined a black South African skeletal sample, were to establish if fusion correlated to age and to estimate the age at which fusion between the first two sacral vertebrae began and ended.

Spheno-occipital synchondrosis: Examining the degree of fusion in a South African Black skeletal sample.

Estimating age-at-death is one of the many biological demographics that a forensic anthropologist needs to determine for a set of unknown skeletal remains. A useful skeletal developmental marker, which can aid in estimating age in sub-adult remains, is the state of fusion of the spheno-occipital synchondrosis. This study aimed to determine the repeatability of a three-stage scoring method and the age at which the spheno-occipital synchondrosis begins and completes fusion in a Black South African sample.