Edinburgh Unit for Forensic Anthropology
RESEARCH GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Forensic Histology
Our group deals with several different projects related to virtual anthropology, forensic histology, trauma analysis etc. Some of our current projects can be found below:
Validation of age estimation and sampling methods
Estimation of age at death by histomorphometry has experienced an increase in methods and sampling sites, expanding the arsenal available to the forensic anthropologist, with which to aid the identification of human skeletal remains. This study tests Stout & Paine (1992) and Stout et al. (1994) histological methods for age estimation on a sample of six left 4th ribs from a Greek population from Crete and attempts to ascertain if: i) the samples exhibit results within the reported errors of the original studies and ii) if results differ significantly when sampling areas of the rib not used by the original studies. Preliminary results of the study have been presented at the annual meeting of the British Association of Human Identification in Manchester, Nov 30th, 2013.
uCT section of a modern human rib from the Cretan collection (Kranioti et. al., 2008). Image contrast and color filters added to improve visualisation. Image Elena Kranioti.
Microscopic thin section of a human rib under polarised light. Image Jeff Dyke.
Thermal alterations may occur in several different forensic settings posing serious problems in the recovery, reconstruction and analysis of human remains. Bone shrinkage due to fire modification has been recently addressed in a number of experimental studies.
The effect of temperature on bone microstructure is particularly worrying when applying histological age estimation methods. The present study aims to explore the alteration of bone micro-dimensions (osteon and canal diameter, OPD etc) on an experimental animal model under controlled temperature and time exposure.
Microscopic thin section of a canine tibia after controlled exposure to fire.
Experimental cremated histology using surrogated animal models
Sequential sections of a canine tibia after controlled exposure to fire.
Microscopic field with measurements under Reflected Light Microscope.
