Holcomb S M, Konigsberg L W
Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37996-0720, USA.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 1995 Jun;97(2):113-25. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.1330970204.
Whether human fetal skeletal remains exhibit sexual dimorphism has been the subject of considerable debate. Most attention in this debate has focused on the greater sciatic notch of the ilium, since it is a gross morphological characteristic with known sex differences in the adult and is easily seen in fetal skeletal remains. Unfortunately, previous traditional morphometric analyses of the fetal sciatic notch have led to ambiguous results. The purpose of this study is to determine whether differences between the sexes can be discerned when modern morphometric techniques are applied to the fetal sciatic notch. Photographs of the ventral side of 133 fetal ilia of known age and sex from the Trotter Collection of Washington University were digitized, and the trace coordinates used for all subsequent analyses. The results of the analysis demonstrate that there is significant sexual dimorphism in the anterior to posterior location of the maximum depth of the sciatic notch, but that the depth of the notch itself is not dimorphic. While there is significant sexual dimorphism in the shape of the sciatic notch, the amount of overlap between males and females is too great for the sciatic notch to be used as a reliable indicator of sex.
人类胎儿骨骼遗骸是否存在性别差异一直是备受争议的话题。这场争论中，大部分注意力都集中在髂骨的坐骨大切迹上，因为它是一种明显的形态特征，在成年人中存在已知的性别差异，并且在胎儿骨骼遗骸中很容易观察到。不幸的是，以往对胎儿坐骨大切迹的传统形态测量分析结果并不明确。本研究的目的是确定当现代形态测量技术应用于胎儿坐骨大切迹时，是否能辨别出性别差异。对华盛顿大学特罗特收藏的133例已知年龄和性别的胎儿髂骨腹侧照片进行数字化处理，并将所得的跟踪坐标用于所有后续分析。分析结果表明，坐骨大切迹最大深度从前到后的位置存在显著的性别差异，但切迹本身的深度并无性别差异。虽然坐骨大切迹的形状存在显著的性别差异，但男性和女性之间的重叠程度过大，以至于坐骨大切迹不能作为可靠的性别指标。
