Javier Irurita

University of Granada | UGR · Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Psychiatry

Biological profile estimation, of which sex estimation is a fundamental first stage, is a really important task in forensic human identification. Although there are a large number of methods that address this problem from different bone structures, mainly using the pelvis and the skull, it has been shown that the humerus presents significant sexual...

Age estimation is a fundamental task in forensic anthropology for both the living and the dead. The procedure consists of analyzing properties such as appearance, ossification patterns, and morphology in different skeletonized remains. The pubic symphysis is extensively used to assess adults’ age-at-death due to its reliability. Nevertheless, most...

The objectives of this work were to validate two published methods for subadult age estimation based on measurements of the pars lateralis, and to develop a new method based on a wider set of measurements using the Granada Osteological Collection. The pars lateralis of 127 individuals from 6 months prenatal to 4 years of age were measured, taking 6...

Pre- and postnatal development and variability in discrete vertebral traits have been poorly described in embryonic studies. Numerous authors have reported that these variations are observable only from adolescence; scientific publications on the vertebrae of fetuses and infants are scarce. Thus, the aims of this study were to (1) describe the onto...

An important demand exists in the field of forensic analysis to objectively determine the post-mortem interval (PMI) when human skeletal remains are discovered. It is widely known that bones undergo different chemical and physical processes after death, mainly due to their interaction with the environment in which they are found, although it is not...

Reducing the subjectivity of the methods used for biological profile estimation is, at present, a priority research line in forensic anthropology. To achieve this, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be a valuable tool yet to be exploited in this discipline. The goal of this study is to compare the effectiveness of different machine learnin...

Sternal morphological variations differ among populations and are influenced by the interaction between inheritance, development, and environment. There are currently no studies that include all variability from a morphogenesis approach following a homogeneous definition. The aims of this study were 1) to develop a standardized method for the anato...

Loss of function mutations in Hox genes can alter the dividing border and change the morphology of the vertebral segment (1). Segmentation on the transition border between C7-T1-mediated by Hox5-and between T12-L1-by Hox10-, induces cranio/caudal shifts (2). Few studies describe these morphological variations in an adult population. However, no stu...

The aim of this work was to study the sexual dimorphism of the occlusal surface of the maxillary postcanine dentition using geometric morphometric techniques. This study evaluated 139 individuals as part of five osteological collections from municipal cemeteries in the province of Granada (Spain). The landmarks and semilandmarks were analysed by pr...

There is currently no clear consensus on how to calculate, express, and interpret the error when validating methods for age estimation in forensic anthropology. For this reason, it is likely that researchers are commonly drawing erroneous or confusing conclusions about the existence of population differences or the need to design new and increasing...

Estimating the sex of immature skeletal remains is important when reconstructing the biological profile of unknown individuals in anthropological practice. Teeth have a distinct importance as they are the most frequently recovered physical elements of an individual. They persist after death due to their hardness and resistance to postmortem insults...

In the context of physical and forensic anthropology, when a child's skeleton is damaged or in poor condition, which is common, many of the metric methods for the estimation of skeletal age cannot be used. In these circumstances, those more resistant bones, such as the pars basilaris, will be most useful. The aims of this study were to test existin...

The purpose of this study is to test the applicability of the age estimation methods of Fazekas and Kósa [1] and Molleson and Cox [2] in Western Mediterranean non-adults and to develop accurate and rapidly applied formulas for their age estimation, using a sample of 149 non-adults of known sex and age from the cemetery of San José in Granada (Spain...

This study provides regression equations for estimation of age of infants from the dimensions of their developing deciduous teeth. The sample comprises 97 individuals of known sex and age (62 boys, 35 girls), aged between 2 days and 1,081 days. The age-estimation equations were obtained for the sexes combined, as well as for each sex separately, th...

Sex estimation of juveniles in the Physical and Forensic Anthropology context is currently a task with serious difficulties because the discriminatory bone characteristics are minimal until puberty. Also, the small number of osteological collections of children available for research has made it difficult to develop effective methodologies in this...

One of the most common conditions during fetal development is anencephaly, which often involves many identification difficulties in the context of physical anthropology, as it causes severe skull challenges. In this paper, we describe the alterations found in the skulls of two perinatal individuals with anencephaly from the osteological collection...

The objective of this study of the maturation of deciduous dentition was to offer a novel age-estimation method for Mediterranean populations, using the osteological collection of fetuses, infants, and young children in the Anthropology Laboratory of Granada University (Spain) as study material. After excluding premature newborns and infants with d...

The methodology used to identify individuals in forensic anthropology requires a minimum degree of precision and accuracy and should be based on identified and representative samples. Achievement of these objectives in infant skeletons is hampered by the scarcity of appropriate samples. The dental age estimation methods of Liversidge et al. (Am J P...

The skeletal remains of an adult female have been exhumed in an 11th century tomb in the mediaeval Jewish cemetery of Ronda Sur, in the city of Lucena (Córdoba, Spain). Examination of the skull and mandible revealed evidences of bilateral condylar fracture and dislocation. Lesions were observed macroscopically and radiology was used as a complement...

The objective of this study is to present the characteristics of a collection of identified infants and young children housed in the Laboratory of Anthropology of the University of Granada, Spain. The sample, which is still being enlarged, is currently composed of 230 complete skeletons aged from 5 months of gestation to 8 years, with a majority be...