What Do the Bones Say?Forensic Anthropology

Combining the scientific techniques of anthropology with the

investigative strategies of forensics to identify missing person remains

and solve crimes.

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 1 of 10

What information would help you to describe and identify a missing person?

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 2 of 10

Bones tell us many things

• Age • Ethnicity• Gender• Height• Weight• Build• Pathologies like old

injuriesUnit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 3 of 10

Famous People in Forensic Anthropology

Wyman and Keep, doctors at the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

Mildred Trotter, anatomy professor at University of Washington, St. Louis, Missouri

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 4 of 10

Jeffries Wyman and Nathan Keep

• First recorded criminal case that used forensic anthropology was in 1849

• Dr. John White Webster murdered Dr. George Parkman over a debt Webster owed

• Webster burned Parkman’s body, put the remains among 150 other bones in a vault beneath his office at Harvard Medical School

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 5 of 10

Wyman: Harvard anatomy professorKeep : Dentist• Wyman concluded that the remains matched

Parkman’s height, weight, gender, age and build.

• Keep matched teeth to dental records.

• Webster was convicted of murder. Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 6 of 10

Dr. Mildred Trotter

http://medcat.wustl.edu/cgi/arb.cgi?0:ig1:4:wim:Trotter,_Mildred,_1899-1991.:

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 7 of 10

Mildred Trotter

• Anthropologist and anatomist• Identified WWII soldiers’ remains at the

Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii from 1948 to 1949

• First female to attain rank of full professor at the University of Washington

• Created formulas to estimate height of a person based on length of long leg bones

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 8 of 10

Long bones in your body include:

• Tibia is the shin bone. • Femur is the thigh bone. • Ulna is the outer bone of

the lower arm.

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 9 of 10

Our Task (see handout)

• Construction site unearths skeletal remains

• One long bone is found – the ulna which measures 28.5 centimeters

• To find the height of the person whose ulnawas found; and devise a formula for estimating a person’s height given the ulna length

Unit 5, Investigation 3

Activity 3.1, p. 10 of 10