The bony symphyseal surface is an important trait for age-at-death estimation from human skeletal remains. In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time that the outline of the human symphyseal surface is sexually dimorphic and that it changes with age. We present a geometric morphometric analysis based on a sample of 323 symphyseal pubic bones from males and females in the age range of 14 to 82 years. These bones were surface-scanned and the resulting surface models were measured along the ventral and dorsal borders of the symphyseal surface using two fixed and 36 curve semilandmarks. Our findings imply that age-related changes in the outline of the symphyseal surface differ between the sexes. According to our results, age explains 5% of total shape variation in females, but less than 1% in males. These findings for the outline, could potentially complement existing sex and age-at-death estimation methods based on other features of the bony pubic surface.

中文翻译：

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耻骨联合表面的轮廓具有性别二态性，并且随着人类年龄的增长而变化。


骨联合表面是根据人类骨骼遗骸估计死亡年龄的重要特征。在本文中，我们首次证明人类交感表面的轮廓具有性别二态性，并且随着年龄的增长而变化。我们基于 14 至 82 岁男性和女性的 323 块耻骨联合骨样本进行了几何形态测量分析。对这些骨骼进行表面扫描，并使用两个固定和 36 条曲线半地标沿着联合表面的腹侧和背侧边界测量所得的表面模型。我们的研究结果表明，与年龄相关的联合骺表面轮廓的变化在性别之间是不同的。根据我们的研究结果，年龄对女性总体体形变化的影响占 5%，但对男性的解释比例不到 1%。这些概述的发现可能会补充现有的基于耻骨骨表面其他特征的性别和死亡年龄估计方法。