Sexual Dimorphism in Cranial length, breadth and Cephalic Index

Sex determination of skeletons has always been of importance in anthropology. Various parts of a skeleton are useful in sex determination such as the pelvis, femur, tibia, humerus, radius, mandible and cranium. Among these, the skull can be used to ascertain individual sex with high accuracy. Most of the previous studies of sex differences in the skull were centred on morphological traits in a descriptive manner whereas the recent studies are focused on morphometry or craniometry in largely quantitative and statistical aspects.

The study was conducted in the Department of Forensic Medicine, Gandhi Medical College Bhopal (M.P.). A total of 160 skulls (100 males and 60 females) of adult age were included in the present study. The cranial length and breadth were measured with spreading caliper and cephalic index was calculated using these values. On statistical analysis the study concluded that the cranial length, breadth and cephalic index were found useful parameters for determining sex of an individual from skull (p<0.01 for cranial length and breadth and p<0.05 for cephalic index).