Cranial Reconstruction of a Victim

This weekend at Rancho Cucamonga's Forensic Science Academy Club between 10:00-15:30 I attended a lecture that focused on cranial reconstructions and using 3D imaging in order to compute a phenotype more appealing "face" of an individual once the complete facial reconstruction has been glued together. Yes, all of these small pieces of artificial bone will be glued like Forensic Anthropologists do it: Elmer's Glue.

 My Mother commented on what my service learning mentors wanted me to do with these cranial bones, "good luck!" I'll need it for sure! It's my first time doing such an experiment, and I will keep in touch on my progress to show how difficult and time consuming this process really is.

This was the skeletal catalog I received, it can easily be suggested that the cranial I received is not necessarily the same size of a normal Homo sapiens sapiens individual since it contains a much smaller cranial capacity and contains smaller teeth which suggest a more youthful age range.

My main goals with this cranial reconstruction is being able to estimate ancestral background by using the cranial landmarks on the posterity angle of the cranium. By using the intermediate/straight/ or projecting face profile of the remains, I will be able to determine if the individual is of Asian/African/or White (including Latin-American descent).

To pose more of a challenge I will be using my EQ of "What is the most important factor of a skeletal remain in a criminal investigation?" I will be using my answers and attempting to apply them in this situation.

• Determining if the skeletal remains are in fact of forensic significance based on the presence of trauma.
• Determining the horizontal excavation layer in which the remains were found in order to determine the possible time of death
• Matching a weapon or natural component that was left as a striation of the remains because of the fact that DNA or lethal vectors need to match to an object used to succeed in the cause of death and match trauma-mortem

I will update my blog accordingly as I pose a "challenge considered" and "challenge accepted" to this cranial reconstruction.