Question

An anthropologist finds a 29 cm humerus in a remote site at a mountain resort. There was a missing person's report for a woman (approximately 5' 5'' tall) placed just about a week ago. Could this bone possibly belong to her? Why or why not?

Answer 1

The answer would be - no.

Explanation:

In the forensic anthropology, the anthropologist can measure the height with the victim's femur or humerus bone. The value of the height can be measured by the simple method which is, measuring the humerus bone in inches and multiply it with the 2.6 and add 65 in the case of the female victim.

This value will be the estimated value of the height of a female individual. The value of the MLH is put in in the white and black women equation the height range is not found as tall as 5 ft 5 inches.

Thus, the correct answer is - no.

Answer 2

Answer;

The humerus most likely does not belong to this woman

Explanation;

-When this value for the MLH is plugged into the white female equation, the height range is 150.96 cm - 159.86 cm. This converts to 4.95 - 5.24 ft (there are 2.54 cm in an inch, so you simply divide the number of centimeters by 2.54 to convert). If this value is plugged into the black female equation, the height range is 149.74 cm - 158.24 cm.

-This converts to 4.91 - 5.19 ft. Neither one of these heights is as tall as 5'5" (which in decimal form converts to 5.42 ft.), so the humerus most likely does not belong to this woman (although it could, since we found that the humerus is not the best indicator of height).