The Impact of Sex and Ancestry on Cranial Sutures in the Hamann Todd Collection

Abstract

Cranial suture closure has been regarded as an unreliable method for age estimation due to the large amount of
variability in the commencement, progression and termination of fusion. The Hamann Todd Osteological Collection
was used to examine the sagittal, coronal and lambdoid sutures in an attempt to determine the impact of sex and ancestry on synostosis. The sagittal does not appear to be impacted by sex, but in the coronal and lambdoid sutures,
significant sex-based differences were noted. Generally, females exhibited greater progression than males, but
synostosis was more strongly related to age in males. Stronger age-score correlations were present in black individuals compared to white individuals. This questions the application of current cranial aging methods, which do not address sex- and population-based differences in the commencement, progression and termination of
sutural fusion.