ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Vol. 114, 187191, 2006

Curvature of the greater sciatic notch in sexing the human pelvis

HIDEO TAKAHASHI1*
1

Department of Anatomy, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, 880 Kitakobayashi, Mibu-machi, Shimotuga-gun,
Tochigi, 321-0293 Japan
Received 11 November 2005; accepted 26 January 2006

Abstract The maximum curvature of the greater sciatic notch and two standardized indices were calculated for use in the sexing of human hip bones. This was done by means of quadratic regression of
the contour points of the greater sciatic notch. The new variables are not directly affected by the osteometric landmarks (e.g. ischial spine, tubercle of the piriformis, and posterior inferior iliac spine) which
determine the greatest width of the notch. These landmarks are, however, known to be ill-defined on
occasion, but nevertheless have been used to derive the conventional depth-to-width index and angles
of the sciatic notch. The curvature parameter and its new indices were applied to the sciatic notch of
164 Japanese hip bones of known sex (104 males and 61 females). The accuracy of the new variables
in the determination of sex was assessed and compared with that of the conventional indices and angles
of the sciatic notch. The best discriminating variable was found to be the posterior angle with an accuracy of 91%. The new parameters of the present study that represent localized shape of the sharply
curved edge of the notch diagnosed sex with an accuracy of 88%. In paleoanthropological or forensic
cases, using the maximum curvature of the sciatic notch and its indices may be applicable to sexing
the hip bones of specimens with postmortem damage.
Key words: greater sciatic notch, curvature, sexing, hip bone, Japanese
1986). The acetabulopubic index, which is a variant of the
modified ischiopubic index, diagnosed sex with an accuracy
of over 90% (Schulter-Ellis et al., 1983). These indices that
take advantage of the greater proportion of the pubis in the
female pelvis, and are known to be more accurate in the
determination of sex than the parameters based on the sciatic
notch. However, this highly dimorphic pubic element of the
hip bone is especially vulnerable to postmortem damage and
decay, as it is covered by only a thin, fragile shell of cortical
bone (MacLaughlin and Bruce, 1986; Bruzek, 2002; Walker,
2005).
The greater sciatic notch and acetabulum are located in
the central portion of the hip bone and, consequently, are
often better preserved. Since width and depth of the notch,
per se, have been found valueless in determining sex
(Williams et al., 1989), width-to-depth indices and angles
have been defined differently (Lazorthes and Lhez, 1939;
Martin and Saller, 1957; Singh and Potturi, 1978). These
variables are affected substantially by the greatest width of
the notch, which sometimes cannot be measured. The main
difficulty encountered in the proper measurement of the
notch is the great morphological variability of the area,
including the sometimes absence of certain morphological
structures and points necessary for defining dimensions of
the notch; for instance the ischial spine, posterior inferior
iliac spine, and tubercle of the piriformis can be variably
expressed and/or ill-defined (Lazorthes and Lhez, 1939;
Jovanovic and Zivanovic, 1965).
For general purposes, visual features can be relied on for
sexing the pelvis (Stewart, 1954). Several visual scoring
methods have been proposed (Meindl et al., 1985; Bruzek,

Introduction
Indices and angles of the greater sciatic notch are known
to be highly sexually dimorphic. Consequently, they have
been considered to be reliable sex discriminators (Caldwell
and Moloy, 1932; Lazorthes and Lhez, 1939; Letterman,
1941; Genovs, 1959; Jovanovic and Zivanovic, 1965;
Jovanovic et al., 1968; Singh and Potturi, 1978; Taylor and
DiBennardo, 1984; Novotn, 1986; Patriquin et al., 2005),
although they are not the best. The most efficient morphological discriminators of sex relate to the pubic bone
(MacLaughlin and Bruce, 1986; Walker, 2005). The puboischial index, based on maximum lengths of the ischium and
pubis, measured from their acetabular junction, produced
accuracy values of 83.7% and 100.0% for American males
and females. When this was correlated with the angle of the
sciatic notch, it was claimed that the sex of 98% of pelves
could be deduced (Washburn, 1949), although the landmark
within the acetabulum was ill-defined (Stewart, 1954). The
modified ischiopubic index, using the acetabulum rim
instead of the central acetabular point, identified sex with an
accuracy of approximately 95% or greater (Thieme and
Schull, 1957; Richman et al., 1979; Kimura, 1982; Novotn,
Collected Papers in Honor of Professor Emeritus Banri Endo:
Commemoration of His Seventieth Birthday
* Corresponding author. e-mail: htak@dokkyomed.ac.jp
phone: +81-282-87-2123; fax: +81-282-86-6229
Published online 1 June 2006
in J-STAGE (www.jstage.jst.go.jp) DOI: 10.1537/ase.051111
2006 The Anthropological Society of Nippon

187

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H. TAKAHASHI

ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCIENCE

2002; Walker, 2005). These methods are less influenced by

the landmarks of the notch at both ends; however, they tend
to be more subjective and may require special osteological
training. The purpose of the present study was to generate
and test a new method of sexual discrimination of the greater
sciatic notch that is not directly linked with ill-defined landmarks necessary to determine the greatest width of the
notch. In the present study, maximum curvature and related
indices of notch contour were newly defined. These parameters were computed from Japanese hip bones, and their sexing capabilities were compared with several conventional
indices and notch angles.

Materials and Methods

Hip bones (right side) of 165 Japanese adults (104 males
and 61 females), who had died in early 20th century, were
selected from the medical skeletal collection housed in the
University Museum at the University of Tokyo. All specimens have their sex documented and show no pathological
abnormality.
Lateral views of the hip bones were photographed with a
digital camera from a distance of 1 m. They were placed on
a black background and with a ruler and adjusted to make
the optical axis of the lens orthogonal to the plane of the sciatic notch. Twelve points were located on each reverse
image (Figure 1). The points A, B, and C are the ischial
spine, tubercle of the piriformis, and the most sharply curved
point of the notch, respectively. The other eight points on the
contour were determined as follows:
(1) Line CD divides the deep space of the sciatic notch
near point C into two approximately equal parts, where the
contour of this space was assumed to be parabolic. According to the procedures outlined in the next two steps (2) and
(3), four lines were spaced at roughly even intervals and
drawn orthogonal to line CD, giving rise to eight intersections with the notch contour (Figure 1).
(2) The bottom of the four lines was displaced upward
from the position of point B, until the notch contour above
this line was observed to be parabolic. Line CD was required
to bisect the bottom line segment of the notch.
(3) The top line was taken where it approached point C
closely, so that any two adjacent points of the nine intersections of the contour (including point C) were to be approximately equidistant. The other two lines were equally spaced
between the top and bottom lines. These results were visually checked according to steps (4) and (5), and adjustments
were made as necessary.
(4) If the bottom line was not bisected by line CD, then
line CD was reconstructed and steps (2) and (3) were
repeated.
(5) If the nine intersections were not scattered evenly, step
(3) was repeated by adjusting the top line.
A total of 14 points were digitized on a computer screen
with NIH Image; these were the 12 points defined on each
image and two additional points on the ruler used for scaling. Point C and the six adjacent points were used for quadratic regression, by which a parabola was fitted to the
contour of the deep region of the sciatic notch. The regres-

Figure 1. Reversed image of a right hip bone (No. 242, male): A,

ischial notch; B, tubercle of the piriformis; C, the most sharply curved
point of the sciatic notch; D, line CD divides the sciatic notch space
near point C into two equal parts. Point C and the six adjacent points
were used in the quadratic regression.

sion curve, which was derived by the least-square method,

was in the form of a quadratic equation: y = a2x2 + a1x + a0.
The maximum curvature at the vertex is given by C0 = 2a2.
The minimum radius of curvature is derived as 1/C0
(Figure 2).
In geometry, curvature at a point is defined as the derivative of the inclination of the tangent with respect to arc
length. From this definition, the unit of curvature is angle
[radian]/length [millimeter]. This implies that curvature is
not dimensionless. The unit of curvature is the reciprocal of
length, because angle is dimensionless. Thus, curvature
depends on bone size in terms of unit analysis. For a new,
dimensionless and size-independent index, curvature should
be multiplied by length. Curvature indices 1 (C1) and 2 (C2)
are standardized curvatures, which were defined as
C1 = C0H and C2 = C0Ac/2, respectively; morphometrically,
C1 is the ratio of the maximum pelvic height (H) to the radius
of the inscribed circle at the vertex (1/C0), and C2 is the ratio
of the maximum acetabular diameter (Ac) to the diameter of
the inscribed circle (2/C0) (Figure 2).
The angular variables of the sciatic notch were derived by
triangular approximation, as illustrated in Figure 3. Point E
was defined as the point on the notch contour that is furthest
from the greatest width AB. The line segment EF is the
greatest depth, which intersects width AB perpendicularly.

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CURVATURE OF THE GREATER SCIATIC NOTCH

189

Figure 2. The
quadratic
regression
curve
(parabola
y = a2x2 + a1x + a0) and the minimum inscribed circle are superimposed: Ac, maximum diameter of acetabulum; 1/C0, minimum radius of
curvature (radius of the circle).

Figure 4. Histograms of curvature index 2 (C2) and posterior

angle of the sciatic notch (2); frequencies are plotted for each sex.

Figure 3. Angles of the greater sciatic notch: A, ischial notch; B,

tubercle of the piriformis; E, the furthermost point on the notch contour from AB; F, foot of the perpendicular from E to AB; 1, angle
BEA (angle of the sciatic notch); 2, angle BEF (posterior angle of the
sciatic notch).

sciatic notch) was expressed by 1 and the angle BEF (posterior angle of the notch) by 2 (Singh and Potturi, 1978).
Basic statistics were computed for the 10 variables listed
in Table 1. Sex differences of the means and variances were
examined by the t-test and F-test, respectively. The male/
female cutoff value for a variable is presumed to occur
between the male and female means. An exploratory procedure determined the cutoff value within that range, and minimized the total misdiagnosed percentage of the two sexes.
The average misdiagnosed percentage, which reflects the
sex-discriminating capability of the variable, was defined as
half the total percentage.

Results
Index 1 (I1) of the sciatic notch was defined as the depth-towidth ratio (EF/AB). Index 2 (I2) was set as the ratio of the
posterior segment BF to width AB (Lazorthes and Lhez,
1939; Letterman, 1941; Genovs, 1959; Jovanovic and
Zivanovic, 1965; Hager, 1996). The angle BEA (angle of the

The basic statistics (mean, standard deviation, maximum,

and minimum) of the 10 variables for each sex are summarized in Table 1. The t-tests for all variables verified that sex
differences were highly significant statistically (P < 0.001 or
0.0001), whereas the F-tests showed no significant differences between sex in the variances of all variables except I1

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H. TAKAHASHI

Table 1.

Basic statistics, cutoff values, and accuracy percentages

P > |t| Cutoff1

Error
(%)1

0.452

9.64

<.0001

197.5

3.3
34.6

18.9

81.1

1.19

0.444

3.48

<.001

147.9

26.2
46.2

36.2

63.8

54.66
57.79

1.12

0.632

11.22 <.0001

48.1

19.7
9.6

14.6

85.4

0.06
0.09

0.22
0.27

1.41

0.150

10.57 <.0001

0.13

14.8
15.4

15.1

84.9

5.49
6.73

10.27
16.89

43.89
50.19

1.50

0.087

12.46 <.0001

24.5

11.5
11.5

11.5

88.5

2.38
4.03

0.69
0.88

1.29
2.17

5.34
6.94

1.61

0.046

13.35 <.0001

2.87

16.4
7.7

12.0

88.0

61
104

48.15
58.22

6.99
9.79

34.95
35.92

65.08
86.09

1.96

0.005

7.67

<.0001

56.3

4.9
44.2

24.6

75.4

F
M

61
104

30.81
14.27

7.47
7.44

5.01
4.78

44.23
35.20

1.01

0.964

13.76

<.0001

25.1

18.0
7.7

12.9

87.1

(1)

F
M

61
104

87.88
69.79

9.03
7.89

59.99
54.21

104.95
92.22

1.31

0.229

13.48

<.0001

81.0

18.0
6.7

12.4

87.6

(2)

F
M

61
104

32.71
13.87

7.92
6.93

4.40
4.51

46.45
30.55

1.31

0.234

15.98

<.0001

23.3

11.5
6.7

9.1

90.9

Sex

Mean

SD

Min

Max

Max pelvic height (H)

F
M

61
104

185.89
200.96

9.14
10.00

155.24
175.38

203.43
224.09

1.20

Iliac breadth

(W)

F
M

61
104

143.80
148.68

9.15
8.40

117.45
125.49

163.50
173.86

Max diameter of (Ac)

acetabulum

F
M

61
104

46.36
51.06

2.50
2.65

39.40
43.64

Curvature of GSN (C0)

F
M

61
104

0.10
0.16

0.03
0.03

Curvatue index 1 (C1)

F
M

61
104

19.02
31.69

Curvature index 2 (C2)

F
M

61
104

Index of GSN

(I1)

F
M

Posterior index

(I2)

Angle of GSN
Posterior angle
1
2

Average (%)2

t value

Variable

F value P > F

Error Correct

Optimal male/female cutoff values and percentages of misclassified bones for each sex.
Average percentages of misdiagnosed and correctly identified pelves between males and females.

(P < 0.01) and C2 (P < 0.05). The percentages of specimens

misidentified using the male/female cutoff values were calculated for each sex. The average percentages of misdiagnosed and correctly predicted pelves of males and females
are listed in Table 1. The posterior angle (2) assigned sex
correctly in 91% of all specimens. The angle of the notch
(1) and the curvature indices 1 (C1) and 2 (C2) did so in 88
89%. Histograms for C2 and 2 are presented in Figure 4.
The curvature of the notch (C0) and the maximum diameter
of the acetabulum (Ac) correctly identified sex in 85%. The
maximum pelvic height (H), the index of the notch (I1) and
the iliac breadth (W) did so in 81%, 75%, and 64%, respectively. These three values were derived from sexually imbalanced error percentages (Table 1), the causes of which are
uncertain but may be due to asymmetry in distribution for
either sex.

Discussion
The four conventional parameters (I1, I2, 1, 2) have different implications geometrically, as can be seen in Figure 3.
Assuming that AB is constant, I1 depends on depth (EF) irrespective of position (F), whereas the situation with I2 is the
opposite (depends on position of F irrespective of depth). On
the contrary, 1 and 2 rely on both depth (EF) and location
(F). The relationship of the two angles with point F can be
seen by assuming lengths AB and EF to be fixed, upon
which either of the angles decreases with deviation of the
location of depth foot (F) from the midpoint of AB. In comparing the four parameters (Table 1), the accuracy of I1

(75%) tends to be lower than that of any of the other three

variables (87% or more). This implies that the position of
point F is a crucial factor for sexing, because only I1 is neutral to the foot location of line EF. Of the four parameters,
the posterior angle (2) was the best sex discriminator,
although the length of the posterior segment and index II of
Singh and Potturi (1978) (equivalent to I2 in Table 1) were
highly effective, especially in females (Singh and Potturi,
1978). The advantage of 2 over I2 by 3.8% is rationalized by
the above-outlined geometry. In the meantime, the accuracy
of 2 was 3.3% higher than that of 1. This indicates that the
posterior portion of the sciatic notch is sexually more variable than the anterior portion (Lazorthes and Lhez, 1939;
Letterman, 1941; Genovs, 1959; Davivongs, 1963; Hager,
1996).
The four parameters are principally based on overall
shape with triangular approximation; i.e. they are indices
and angles of the sciatic notch as a whole. On the other hand,
maximum curvature (C0) is localized at the depth of the contour near point C and more precisely fit with a parabola. Notwithstanding a partial and size-dependent indicator of the
notch around the sharply curved region, C0 correctly identified the sex of 85% of the specimens (Table 1). Curvature
indices (C1, C2), which are standardized measures of curvature, identified sex more accurately with a frequency of 88
89%.
Sexual dimorphism in C2, which is the ratio of the acetabulum to the inscribed circle of the notch (Figure 2), is illustrated by a histogram in Figure 4. The mean diameter of the
acetabulum is 4 times as great as that of the inscribed circle

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CURVATURE OF THE GREATER SCIATIC NOTCH

in the male, whereas it is 2.5 times greater in the female

(Table 1). In geometric morphometrics, thin-plate spline
interpolation was applied to the sciatic notch (Steyn et al.,
2004). Since the method is based on cubic equations instead
of the quadratic ones used in the present study, curvature
derived by spline function may yield a better accuracy rate in
sexing.
The pubic bone, which proved to be the most efficient
morphological discriminator in sexing (MacLaughlin and
Bruce, 1986), is more fragile than the central portion of the
pelvis, including the greater sciatic notch and acetabulum
(Taylor and DiBennardo, 1984). Practically, the generally
better preserved sciatic notch should be more useful in paleoanthropology and forensics. Conventional indices (I1, I2)
and angles (1, 2) of the notch were verified with high accuracy, but all these parameters essentially are based on the
greatest width of the sciatic notch (AB), where point A is the
ischial spine and point B is the tubercle of the piriformis.
The former is vulnerable to damage and the latter is sometimes absent, especially in females (Jovanovic et al., 1968).
The advantage of the newly defined curvature (C0) and its
relevant indices (C1, C2) over the conventional indices and
angles of the sciatic notch is that they are not affected by the
osteological landmarks A and B, and are essentially fractureresistant.
Sex differences in bones inevitably are linked to function;
while the primary pelvic function in both sexes is locomotorassociated, the pelvis is adapted to parturition in females,
particularly the lesser pelvis (Williams et al., 1989; Hager,
1996). It has been hypothesized that, owing to opposing
selection pressures on pelvic morphology in females, i.e.
efficiency in locomotion and obstetric adequacy, female pelvic morphology is less variable than that of males (Tague,
1989). Although this was not statistically proven by Tague
(1989), the hypothesis was partially supported by the two
parameters, C2 and 1, in the present study, by means of an
F-test.

Acknowledgments
I am indebted to G. Suwa for access to the materials, C.
Yoshizawa for capturing and digitizing bone images and two
anonymous reviewers for invaluable comments. The present
study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific
Research from the Japanese Ministry of Education
(#11304059).

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