Sexual dimorphism of skull – morphological and mathematical facets

Determination of sex of an individual is the first step that should be undertaken in skeletal remains examination. In the living, we recognize two sexes, male and female. But, while dealing with skeletal remains, we frequently come across the bones possessing the features of both male and female sexes, in which it is best to look for the biologically most relevant traits. So instead of two sexes, we have the difficulty to choose from five sexes i.e. definite male, probable male, unknown, probable female and definite female, because of the continuum of spectra of dimorphic features. Therefore based on subjective traits, it is illogical to assign a particular sex to the skeletal remains. Present article aims at discussing some of the factors that are associated with making the sexual dimorphism a spectrum of sexual differentiation of human skull along with morphological and mathematical facets of sexing of skull.