Technological advancements in forensic imaging have had tremendous flow-on benefits to the professional practice of forensic anthropology, not only in respect of case-work analyses, but in facilitating empirical research that has validated and/or improved existing, and introduced novel, methods into the discipline. Some of the pioneering practical examples of radiographic imaging being applied in the forensic analysis of human skeletal remains date to the initial introduction of radiography in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Subsequent modern applications have developed concurrent to the use of computed tomography in the forensic morgue for autopsy procedures by pathologists; virtopsy (as it is now termed) represents a powerful non-invasive supplement/alternative to traditional autopsy practices where dissection may not be allowable due to religious objection (amongst other reasons). The present review considers a brief history of skeletal radiographic imaging and the specific modalities typically employed. Forensic applications of ‘virtual anthropology’ are then discussed, as are applications of the latter in DVI and other case-work scenarios. Throughout the review we emphasise the research importance of virtual modelling and conclude with some thoughts for future directions

The reconciliation of skeletal and chronological age is of paramount concern in the context of criminal proceedings involving living individuals, who frequently lack any associated identification documentation, and are referred to the criminal justice system. It is important to appreciate that skeletal and chronological ages are not the same measurement of time-since-birth, and depending on the analytical approaches applied, there will be an inherent source of variation between estimated (biological: skeletal, physical, and psychological) and actual (legal) age. Given the evidentiary value attached to the estimation of age based on the subjective assessment of biological and psychological developmental attributes, it is timely to consider current approaches toward achieving the latter. The aim of this review is to first explore a selection of circumstances that result in requests for forensic age assessment in living individuals. Issues pertaining to competency to perform an assessment, sources of error that may be introduced, and how to accordingly quantify the level of uncertainty in the final estimation are then considered. This logically leads into discussions of the necessity for population-specific statistical biological data. Current methods based on psychological development, dental status, and skeletal maturation are then reviewed. The review concludes by exploring future research and practical directions in the context of medico-legal practice and social consequences.

Recent excavations undertaken by the Aerial Archaeology in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (AAKSA) project have recovered significant skeletal material, evidence for funerary offerings, including jewelry, and the earliest chronometrically dated domestic dog in the Arabian Peninsula. Despite being heavily disturbed by recent looting, these monumental funerary structures were found to be collective burials dating to the 5th and 4th millennia b.c. The evidence recovered from these graves provides new insight into the social and funerary landscapes of northwestern Arabia during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, shedding light upon issues of social memory, territoriality, and monumentality in the Middle Holocene of the Arabian Peninsula.

The ability to differentiate individuals based on their biological sex is essential for the creation of an accurate anthropological assessment; it is therefore crucial that the standards that facilitate this are likewise accurate. Given the relative paucity of population-specific anthropological standards formulated specifically for application in the contemporary Australian population, forensic anthropological assessments have historically relied on the application of established methods developed using population geographically and/or temporally disparate. The aim of the present paper is, therefore, to assess the accuracy and reliability of established cranial sex estimation methods, developed from geographically distinct populations, as applied to the contemporary Australian population. Comparison between the original stated accuracy and sex bias values (where applicable) and those achieved after application to the Australian population provides insight into the importance of having anthropological standards optimised for application in specific jurisdictions. The sample analysed comprised computed tomographic (CT) cranial scans of 771 (385 female and 386 male) individuals collected from five Australian states/territories. Cranial CT scans were visualised as three-dimensional volume-rendered reconstructions using OsiriX®. On each cranium, 76 cranial landmarks were acquired, and 36 linear inter-landmark measurements were calculated using MorphDB. A total of 35 predictive models taken from Giles and Elliot (1963), Iscan et al. (1995), Ogawa et al. (2013), Steyn and İşcan (1998) and Kranioti et al. (2008) were tested. Application to the Australian population resulted in an average decrease in accuracy of 21.2%, with an associated sex bias range between − 64.0 and 99.7% (average sex bias value of 29.6%), relative to the original studies. The present investigation has highlighted the inherent inaccuracies of applying models derived from geographically and/or temporally disparate populations. It is, therefore, imperative that statistical models developed from a population consistent with the decedent be used for the estimation of sex in forensic casework.

It has been empirically demonstrated that the application of anthropological standards, developed using populations geographically or temporally disparate from that of a decedent, negatively impacts on classification accuracy. Therefore, there is a real need for population specific methodologies to ensure that accurate estimations of biological attributes are provisioned the present study reports the first morphometric cranial sexing standards formulated specifically for application in, and based on the statistical analysis of, a broad representation of the contemporary Australian population. The primary aim of the present paper is to quantify cranial sexual dimorphism and to subsequently develop statistically robust cranial sex estimation standards for the complete cranium and/or its associated fragments. The sample analysed comprised computed tomographic (CT) cranial scans of 771 (385 female and 386 male) individuals collected from five Australian states/territories. Scans are visualized as three-dimensional volume rendered reconstructions using OsiriX®, from which 76 three-dimensional cranial landmarks are then acquired. A total of 36 linear inter-landmark measurements are calculated using MorphDB. All cranial measurements were statistically significantly sexually dimorphic in mean values; the three most dimorphic being bizygomatic breadth, bizygotemporal breadth and basion-nasion height. A total of five univariate and nine multivariate discriminant functions were formulated, achieving a maximum of 90.3% classification accuracy according to sex, with an associated sex bias of −4.4%. The findings of the present study indicate that within the Australian population sex can be accurately estimated using cranial measurements. Furthermore, this study is the first to incorporate a collective and inclusive sample of contemporary living Australians thus better informing the accuracy and reliability of casework and forensic practice across the country.

The estimation of ancestry is important not only towards establishing identity but also as a required precursor to facilitating the accurate estimation of other attributes such as sex, age at death, and stature. The present study aims to analyze morphological variation in the crania of Japanese and Western Australian individuals and test predictive models based on machine learning for their potential forensic application. The Japanese and Western Australian samples comprise computed tomography (CT) scans of 230 (111 female; 119 male) and 225 adult individuals (112 female; 113 male), respectively. A total of 18 measurements were calculated, and machine learning methods (random forest modeling, RFM; support vector machine, SVM) were used to classify ancestry. The two-way unisex model achieved an overall accuracy of 93.2% for RFM and 97.1% for SVM, respectively. The four-way sex and ancestry model demonstrated an overall classification accuracy of 84.0% for RFM and 93.0% for SVM. The sex-specific models were most accurate in the female samples (♀ 95.1% for RFM and 100% for SVM; ♂91.4% for RFM and 97.4% for SVM). Our findings suggest that cranial measurements acquired in CT images can be used to accurately classify Japanese and Western Australian individuals into their respective population. This is the first study to assess the feasibility of ancestry estimation using three-dimensional CT images of the skull.