Evaluation of the Relationship of Anatomical Formations on the Temporal Bone with the Face Shape

One of the areas of interest of forensic science is identification of individual who can not be identified. Age, gender, ethnicity and height form the biological profile of individuals and form the basis of identification. Forensic identification based on skeleton is performed as the last method if there are fully skeletonized individuals at the scene. Facial reconstruction is a method in which the face shape of the person is estimated using clay and similar materials in cases where only the skull is present and there is no soft tissue on it. Due to natural events and animals, the integrity of skeletal remains may be disrupted and identification get harder. The aim of the thesis study is to estimate the skull shape by referring to the temporal bone in the presence of fragmented or missing parts of the skull at the scene. In the thesis study, computarized tomography images of a total 96 individual of 51 women and 45 men which are obtained from Bursa Uludag University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiology, were used. With the temporal bone formations which are mastoidale, porion, asterion and articular tubercle as reference, a total of 151 variables were measured in Image J program. Statistics of the data obtained were carried out using SPSS 22.0 program. In addition to descriptive values, correlation, regression and discriminant function analysis were performed. Some regression formulas have been developed to predict missing parts if the skull is fragmented. In addition, discriminant function analysis was performed to estimate the gender. We hope that the data and formulas obtained will be useful for more than one discipline, especially for Forensic Anthropologists.