Determination of stature is a part of identification of an unknown dead body as per medico-legal and social requirements. Stature can be calculated by either mathematical formulas or anatomical measurements. But each of these methods has inherent degrees of uncertainties. Establishing identity in the case of an unknown is the major part of postmortem examination. Stature or height of the living individual is an important component of the same.
By definition, stature is the natural height of the person in the upright position. When a severely mutilated body or body parts are obtained, stature has to be arbitrarily estimated. These estimates are based on the principle that skeletal features are directly related to the individual stature. Skeletal dimensions correlate with the age, sex and stature of the individual. Alphonse Bertillon was the first person to use anthropometric measurements…
