Estimación sexual en restos óseos de cazadores-recolectores de Patagonia central argentina: contrastación de métodos morfométricos con análisis paleogenéticos

The present study compares the results of sex estimation in ancient human bone remains of adult individuals from Argentine central Patagonia (N = 42) using two methods. On the one hand, the study of structures of the pelvis, skull, humerus, femur and tibia. On the other hand, the biological sex estimated by means of molecular analysis (Next Generation Sequencing), using bioinformatic tools validated for ancient DNA. The results showed that sex estimations based on features of the pelvis (subpubic concavity and ventral arc), the mastoid process of the skull and the formulas proposed by Beguelin for humerus and femur were statistically similar to molecular results in this particular sample from Patagonia. In contrast, the estimations based on structures of the tibia and bicondylar width of humerus and femur were significantly different from molecular sex estimations. Further research needs to be conducted in order to test sex-estimation methods on subadult skeletons.