A Quantitative Assessment of the Morphology of the Piriform Aperture as an Indicator of Race

Piriform apertures from skulls in the Bass Collection at the University of Tennessee were examined. The morphology of the perform aperture from digital images was captured using Adobe Measuring Tool 9.0 and data analyzed with SPSS 17.0. Twenty-four linear measurements from a central point of the aperture as well as the perimeter were evaluated to quantify a difference between Black and White populations. The statistical analyses employed Discriminate Functional Analysis followed by Stepwise analysis. Discriminate functions were generated to predict to which group a skull belonged. A discriminate function produced an accuracy of 77.4%. Step-wise discriminate function analysis, using only three variables, produced an accuracy of 79.0%.