OBJECTIVES: A new tool for skeletal sex estimation based on measurements of the human os coxae is presented using skeletons from a metapopulation of identified adult individuals from twelve independent population samples. For reliable sex estimation, a posterior probability greater than 0.95 was considered to be the classification threshold: below this value, estimates are considered indeterminate. By providing free software, we aim to develop an even more disseminated method for sex estimation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten metric variables collected from 2,040 ossa coxa of adult subjects of known sex were recorded between 1986 and 2002 (reference sample). To test both the validity and reliability, a target sample consisting of two series of adult ossa coxa of known sex (n = 623) was used. The DSP2 software (Diagnose Sexuelle Probabiliste v2) is based on Linear Discriminant Analysis, and the posterior probabilities are calculated using an R script. RESULTS: For the reference sample, any combination of four dimensions provides a correct sex estimate in at least 99% of cases. The percentage of individuals for whom sex can be estimated depends on the number of dimensions; for all ten variables it is higher than 90%. Those results are confirmed in the target sample. DISCUSSION: Our posterior probability threshold of 0.95 for sex estimate corresponds to the traditional sectioning point used in osteological studies. DSP2 software is replacing the former version that should not be used anymore. DSP2 is a robust and reliable technique for sexing adult os coxae, and is also user friendly.

Centre for Functional Ecology Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology Life Sciences Department University of Coimbra Coimbra 3000 456 Portugal

Department of Anthropology and Human Genetics Faculty of Science Charles University Prague 2 12000 Czech Republic

Laboratoire PACEA De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel Culture Environnement et Anthropologie UMR 5199 CNRS Université de Bordeaux CS 50023 Pessac 33615 France

References provided by Crossref.org

Automatic variable extraction from 3D coxal bone models for sex estimation using the DSP2 method

Classification performance of the Sella-Tunis et al. (2017) sex estimation method in Czech population: different posterior probability threshold approaches

Prioritizing a high posterior probability threshold leading to low error rate over high classification accuracy: the validity of MorphoPASSE software for cranial morphological sex estimation in a contemporary population

Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom)

Age-related differences in cranial sexual dimorphism in contemporary Europe

Mechanical metric for skeletal biomechanics derived from spectral analysis of stiffness matrix

Shape morphing technique can accurately predict pelvic bone landmarks

Advanced procedures for skull sex estimation using sexually dimorphic morphometric features

Virtual reconstruction of the Upper Palaeolithic skull from Zlatý Kůň, Czech Republic: Sex assessment and morphological affinity