[Molecular sex determination in skeletal remains of premature and newborn infants of the Aegerten, Switzerland, burial field].

The morphological and morphometrical analyses of skeletal remains usually give reliable access to the gender of mature individuals while the analyses of skeletal remains of immature individuals allocate only 70-90 % of the individuals. However, the use of modern techniques like the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) enables a sex identification also if fragmentary material or skeletal remains of children are investigated. The present study reconstructs the sex ratio of about 120 stillborn and neonate individuals of the burial place Aegerten, Switzerland. The morphometrical sex determination of the children suggests a large excess (about 60 %) of female individuals. This finding was compared to the molecular sex identification. In order to perform a molecular sex identification aDNA was extracted from bone samples of the stillborn and neonate individuals. A standard phenol/chloroform extraction and a purification with a silica powder were carried out. Finally, the aDNA samples were amplified with a primer system for the amelogenin gene, that is located on the human sex chromosomes.