It is not always obvious when dealing with remains, particularly in archaeology, what the gender of the deceased was. For humans, a wealth of information can be provided by the body to help to determine their gender, by comparing skeletal structure (Figure 6):
Carefully measuring and comparing the size and shape of bones from adult human remains and comparing them with modern-day records is a means of determining gender with a relatively high level of certainty. Although the gender cannot be definitively determined from measurements of a single bone, by combining evidence from several bones, or using this evidence in conjunction with other information, it is possible to improve the certainty of gender identification. All of the 92 complete skeletons on the Mary Rose were male (Stirland, 2005). Some were adolescents and at least one was a child, but it is not generally possible to determine the gender of adolescents and children from the size and shape of the bones, as the skeleton continues to grow at varying rates until late adolescence (or early adulthood).
Gender can also be determined by analysing aDNA (ancient DNA) when only bone fragments or organic remains are preserved.
Karyotyping is used to identify the presence of X or Y chromosomes.
What chromosomal pairing would you expect to see for (a) females and (b) males?
(a) Females will exhibit an XX pairing and (b) males an XY pairing.
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