ANTHROPOMETRIC STUDY OF CRANIOFACIAL DIMENSIONS IN SKELETONIZED SKULLS OF NIGERIAN ORIGIN

Anthropometric characteristics have direct relationship with sex, shape and form of an individual and these factors are intimately linked with each other and are manifestation of the internal structure and tissue components which in turn are influenced by environmental and genetic factors. The present work aimed to study the anthropometry of craniofacial parameters of skeletonized skulls of Nigerian origin and to verify the presence of sexual dimorphism among them. Using a spreading and a Vernier caliper craniofacial measurements were taken. The measurements include; Maximum cranial length (MCL), Maximum cranial breadth (MCB), Total cranial height (TCH), Anterior Facial height (AFH), Bizygomatic breadth (BB), Nasal height (NH) Nasal Width (NW), Orbital breadth and Orbital height. Cephalic Index (CI), Nasal Index (NI), Facial Index and Orbital Index (PI) weredetermined. Analysis of the mean values, standard error of mean, for the values of the craniofacial measurements were carried out using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25 software for Microsoft® windows.The mean ± SD values craniofacial measurements of MCL,MCB, AFH, BB, NH, NW, TCH, OH, OB, NI, OI, CI and FI, for males were 19.24±1.01 , 14.16±166, 13.25±1.83, 11.40±0.90, 5.07±0.33, 2.75±0.43, 21.90±1.01, 3.67±0.25,
4.23±0.31, 54.67±10.19, 84.82±7.34, 72.5±7.26, 86.83±6.92 respectively; while the female values were
17.84±0.49, 14.20±0.19, 12.22±0.75, 10.78±1.21, 4.80±0.14, 2.56±0.20, 21.12±0.77, 3.44±0.14,
3.89±0.16, 53.44±4.55, 88.35±3.32, 79.64±2.25, 88.07±6.42 respectively Higher mean values were
observed for male subjects in the following variables as compared to the female subjects except for the
indices which females recorded higher values.The results from this study suggested the presence of
statistically significant sexual dimorphism between the male and female variables in this study sample with males being significantly larger for all measurements. The parameter that showed the greatest level of sexual dimorphism is medial cranial length (MCL) with mean values of 19.24cm for males and 17.84cm for females.