Sex determination using DNA and its impact on biological anthropology

Abstract The advent of DNA-based sex determination of skeletal remains has had major impacts on the fields of biological and forensic anthropology. This is especially true for remains where the use of traditional techniques is not useful, such as juvenile remains, fragmentary remains, or remains with ambiguous sex characteristics. DNA sex determination has opened new avenues of exploration for past population studies of marriage and burial patterns, sex-based differences in mortality and disease rates, and other anthropological questions. However, DNA cannot be extracted from all remains, due to taphonomic degradation or poor DNA preservation. In these cases, traditional anthropological techniques will continue to be the sole means of assessing the sex of the individual.