Morphological variation in cervical spinous processes: Potential applications in the forensic identification of race from the skeleton

Determination of race (ancestry) is an important step in the identification of individuals in forensic cases. Race is most commonly assessed using cra nial traits. Few reliable postcranial indicators are known. in this study, the frequency of bifidity of cervical spinous processes at different verteb ral levels was examined in a sample of 359 Americans of African (black) and European (white) descent. The sample was selected from the Hamann-Todd col lection, a large modem anatomical collection of known sex and race. Spinous processes were classified as "bifid," "partially bifid," or "nonbifid" bas ed on previously defined criteria. Sex and race were kept entirely unknown to the classifier (S.M.D.) during data collection. Data were analyzed using Chi-square and logistic regression analysis. At C2, most individuals (91%) had bifid spinous processes, At C7, nearly all (98%) had nonbifid spinous processes. Significant differences between race/sex subgroups were found at C3-C6, At each of these levels, whites showed a higher frequency of bifidi ty than blacks and males a higher frequency of bifidity than females. Diffe rences between races were greater than differences within races. Logistic r egression analysis revealed C3 and C4 to be the most useful levels for iden tifying race. Based on these levels, 76.05% of a validation subsample was c orrectly classified by race (80.25% for whites, 72.09% for blacks). Pending further study, morphology of the cervical spinous processes may provide an additional method for the determination of race in skeletal forensic cases .