Bone histology and chemistry for forensic identification: what can a small rib fragment tell you?

Introduction: Age-at-death and origin are crucial pieces of information required for the identification of unknown individuals. Macroscopic, microscopic and laboratory-based analyses are used for these purposes with the choice of the method being critical to ensure accurate results. This research investigates the development of Cretan population-specific methods of identification through bone histology and isotope analysis. Materials and Methods: Fifty-two rib fragments of known age from the Cretan osteological collection were used for this study. Histomorphometric analysis and multiisotope profiles were applied in an effort to explore age related changes and their significance in origin prediction. Moreover, histological and stable isotopes- data were analysed jointly in a small sample set (N=11). Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS 24. Results: Age estimates showed higher accuracy rates using population-specific formulae with a minimum error of 13 years from known age when applying two histological variables. C13 and N15 showed correlations with age and differences were also observed between healthy and pathological samples. The combination of both data analyses on the small data set provided age estimates with less than 10 years of standard error. Conclusions: Rib fragments are routinely used in forensic age estimation and stable isotopes in diet reconstruction and determination of origin. This paper gives a different perspective in forensic investigation by investigating separately and jointly both analyses conducted in small rib samples. Confirmation of this preliminary analysis is required and it can open new avenues in forensic identification applicable in a range of fatalities involving unidentified individuals