Estimation of stature from the vertebral column in physical and forensic anthropology

Abstract

Stature is one of the most important parameters in personal identification for physical and forensic anthropologists. Stature can be extimated from decomposed and fully or partially akeletonized human remains. Many Authors developed anatomical methods based on measurements of the whole skeleton or mathematical methods based on measurements of single bones, from which they obtained regression formulae for calculating the stature. In this review, we focused on the vertebral column and compared the corresponding regression formulae according to population, sex and age by a critical analysis of the literature.