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Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

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Anthropometric study of the external

ear and its applicability in sex
identification: assessed in an Indian
sample
a

Vinita Murgod , Punnya Angadi , Seema Hallikerimath & Alka

Kale

KLE VK Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Oral and

Maxillofacial Pathology, Nehrunagar, Belgaum, 590010, India
Published online: 14 Feb 2013.

To cite this article: Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences (2013): Anthropometric study of the
external ear and its applicability in sex identification: assessed in an Indian sample, Australian
Journal of Forensic Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/00450618.2013.767374
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00450618.2013.767374

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Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00450618.2013.767374

Anthropometric study of the external ear and its applicability in sex

identication: assessed in an Indian sample
Vinita Murgod, Punnya Angadi*, Seema Hallikerimath and Alka Kale
KLE VK Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital, Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology,
Nehrunagar, Belgaum 590010, India

Downloaded by [McGill University Library] at 12:41 10 July 2013

(Received 14 December 2012; nal version received 10 January 2013)

Ear prints have the potential for personal identication as the shape, size and orientation of the external ear are as individual as ngerprints. Several studies exist on ear
dimensions in various populations; however, studies on Indians are sparse and none
of these studies have explored the sex discrimination potential of ear morphometric
variables. The present study included 300 subjects (150 males and 150 females) in
the age range of 1830 years originating from all over India. A digital anthropometric method was employed to measure ear length and breadth, base of auricle, lobe
length and breadth. Further, the physiognomic ear index, lobe attachments and shape
of ear were also assessed. The sex discrimination potential of all these variables was
also evaluated. The right and left ears were mostly asymmetrical with respect to ear
length, ear breadth, base of auricle. The ear length, breadth and base of auricle were
larger in males than females while lobe length and breadth were larger in females as
compared with males (chi square test, p 6 0.001). Additionally, the ear parameters
gave a moderate to good sex identication accuracy ranging from 6871% using discriminant function analysis.
Keywords: external ear; sex determination; forensic identication; anthropometry;
forensic anthropology population data; digital photogrammetry

Introduction
Various methods can be used to establish the identity of an individual, including ngerprints, dental records, DNA analysis and anthropologic measurements [16]. Every so
often, it may be necessary to apply newer and unusual techniques [3]. Recently, ear
prints have shown the potential for personal identication in forensic investigations.
The external ear, composed of auricle/pinna and external acoustic meatus, has been
extensively studied as an identication parameter. The external ear and its prints have
been described by many authors as having an important role in establishing the identity
of criminals and victims of crimes or accidents [79]. The anatomy of the pinna differs
according to the age, sex, race and ethnic group and has been used by physical
anthropologists and forensic experts in identication [8], [1014]. A thorough
knowledge of the morphology of the human ear also helps in facial reconstruction for
forensic identication, for surgical procedures carried out for ear replacement and for
ergonomic replacement of hearing aids. A detailed study of the morphologic features,
*Corresponding author. Email: punnya_angadi@rediffmail.com
2013 Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences

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V. Murgod et al.

position, orientation and the metric analysis of the external ear is thus essential for
forensic experts, physical anthropologist and for surgeons [10], [13], [1518].
Quantitative data on ear dimensions have been reported in Koreans [19,20],
Japanese [11], Turkish Caucasians [21], British Caucasians [10], American Caucasians
[22], Italian Caucasians [23], Berlin Caucasians [24], African populations [10] and Han
population [25]. There are few studies that do exist on Indians [16], [24], [2629];
however, three of these studies focused only on particular geographic areas (two on
North West India and the other on Central India) while one was conducted on children
and newborns. So, data regarding ear morphology in young adult population is lacking.
In the current scenario, reference databases on every ethnic group are needed in forensic
investigations. Additionally, though the differences in the ears between males and
females have been largely acknowledged, none of the studies have explored the sex discrimination potential of these parameters.
The present study aims to give information regarding ear morphology in the young
adult Indian population, i.e. normal sex-related dimensions of the ear (linear measurements, shape, and attachment of lobes) and leftright symmetry belonging to the age
group of 1830 years using a non-invasive digital photography method. Additionally,
we have endeavoured to evaluate the extent of sexual dimorphism of all these variables
and their efcacy in sex estimation.

Material and methods

Sample
A total of 300 healthy Indians (150 males and 150 females) aged between 1830 years
were included in the study. The exclusion criteria included subjects with a previous

Table 1.

Detailed breakdown of sample based on sex and geographic region.

Sl. No

State

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Karnataka
Maharashtra
Rajasthan
Bihar
Haryana
Uttar Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
West Bengal
Tamil Nadu
Gujarat
Andhra Pradesh
Goa
Delhi
Punjab
Orissa
Assam
Manipur
Jharkhand
Kerala
Himachal Pradesh
Total

Males

Females

68
19
6
8
3
6
3
3
3
17
4
1
3
5
1
0
0
0
0
0
150

23
18
8
12
4
8
3
5
3
9
17
10
7
12
1
2
1
2
4
1
150

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Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

history of craniofacial trauma, ear disease, congenital anomalies or previous surgery to

the ear. The sample comprised undergraduate and graduate students from the dental
school, who originated from most parts of India (Table 1) and belong to a mixture of
ethnic groups, religions and castes (including Hindus Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas,
Lingayat, Shudras, Punjabi, Jain, Sindhi and Baniya), a minority of Christians (protestant and Catholics) and Muslims (Sunni and Siyas), so as to evaluate the morphology
and sex differences of Indians as a whole. The subjects were informed about all the
adopted procedures and verbal consent was obtained. The study protocol was approved
by the institutional ethical committee. During data collection, the subjects were made to
sit on a stool with head positioned such that the vertical axis of the pinna was perpendicular to the oor, with a white ruler placed behind the pinna exactly parallel to the
auricle. An Olympus SP-320, 7.1 megapixel camera was used to capture the images of
the ear morphology. The camera was held 15 cm away from the ear and the photographs were taken in a standardized manner. Two photographs of both the left and right
ear were taken and the best were used for further analysis.

Figure 1. Landmarks utilized for the ear morphometry. Superaurale (sa) highest/superior most
point on the free margin of the auricle (1); Subaurale (sba) lowest point on the free margin of
the ear lobe(2); Preaurale (pra) most anterior point of the ear, located just in front of the helix
(3); Postaurale (pa) most posterior point on the free margin of the ear (helix) (4); Inferior most
attachment of pinna(5); Deepest point on the intertragic notch (6); Posterior most point of the ear
lobe (7).

V. Murgod et al.

Measurements
The selected photographs were imported and analysed using the Adobe Photoshop CS3
software. After adjusting the pixels to 1 cm, the measure tool of the software was used to
make the following measurements with the landmarks depicted in Figure 1 (Unit: mm):

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Ear length Superaurale (1) to Subaurale (2)

Ear breadth Preaurale (3) to Postaurale (4)
Base of the auricle Preaurale (3) to Inferior most attachment of pinna (5)
Lobe length Deepest point on the intertragic notch (6) to lowest point on the
free margin of the ear lobe
Lobe width Inferior most attachment of pinna (5) to posterior most point of the
ear lobe (7)

Additional variables evaluated were:

Lobe attachments that were classied as attached (A), intermediate (B) and free
lobes (C) as shown in Figure 2 based on Sharma et al. [24].
Physiognomic ear index was calculated by using the following formula: (Ear
breadth  100)/ Ear length. Based on this, the overall shape of the ear was classied [10] as Narrow if the value is 6600, Medium if >600 but 6650 and Wide
if P650.

All the measurements were performed by the rst author. Further, the intraobserver
variation was assessed by randomly measuring 50 subjects photographs again at a later
time for all the ear parameters.

Figure 2. Demonstrates the different types of lobe attachment A: Attached B: intermediate C:

Free.

Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

Statistical analysis

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Descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard deviation) for each measurement in males and
females was generated. The symmetry of the right and left ears (Table 2), the differences in the ear symmetry between sexes (Table 3) and intra-observer variability were
evaluated using paired t-test and technical error measurement (TEM). The male to
female differences (univariate sex dimorphism) in the parameters recorded were analysed using a t-test (Table 4). P-values of less than 0.05 were considered to be statistically signicant. The comparison according to gender of the measured parameters was
evaluated using discriminant function analysis (Tables 5 and 6). The univariate and
multivariate statistical analyses were performed on a SPSS 10.0 software package
(SPSS Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA).
Results
Intraobserver variation
The paired t tested to evaluate potential intraobserver variation demonstrated insignicant statistical differences (p P 0.05) except for the lobe length measurements. However, the average difference was only around 0.05 cm. Further, the technical error of
measurement (TEM), which measures the error of variability that carries the same measurement units as the variable measured, ranged from 0.97 to 1.2 for all the ear parameters. These results signify that the methodology was adequate and unlikely to bias the
results (within 2 times, i.e. 95% precision margin) [30].
Symmetry
Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics of the ear variables evaluated and measured on
both right and left sides with the degree of symmetry analysed using the paired t-test.
The ear length ranged from 62.462.9 mm with the left ear length being signicantly
larger than the right ear length (p = 0.002). Contrastingly, the right ear breadth was
signicantly wider in comparison to the left ear breadth. (Range: 32.733.9 mm;
p 6 0.000). The measurements for the right base of auricle were statistically larger than
those of the left base of auricle and were in the range of 43.945.0 mm. The lobe
length (range 18.919.0 mm) and the lobe breadth (range 18.3 18.6 mm) were larger in
the right ear compared with the left ear but the differences did not reach the level of
statistical signicance (p P 0.001).
Table 3 depicts the symmetry of the ear within the sexes. A signicant difference
between males and females for both right and left ears for ear length, breadth, base of
Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the measured ear variables and paired t test for evaluation of
the symmetry of ear (measurements in mm).

Ear length
Ear breadth
Base of Auricle
Lobe Length
Lobe Breadth

Statistically signicant

Left (n=300)

Right (n=300)

6.29 0.51
3.270.32
4.390.50
1.890.23
1.830.31

6.24 0.58
3.39 0.32
4.500.54
1.900.25
1.860.31

Difference
0.05
0.12
0.11
0.1
0.03

0.41
0.27
0.40
0.15
0.24

T value

P-value

2.346
7.821
4.952
0617
1.961

0.020
0.000
0.000
0.538
0.051

Statistically signicant

Left ear length (300)

Right ear length (300)
Left ear breadth (300)
Right ear breadth(300)
Left base of auricle (300)
Right base of auricle (300)
Left lobe length (300)
Right lobe length (300)
Left lobe breadth (300)
Right lobe breadth (300)

Variables

63.815.62
63.776.50
33.063.08
34.783.32
45.285.22
46.795.88
18.752.41
19.032.80
18.293.02
18.973.11

Mean
0.112
7.212
4.363
2.085
3.437

1.712.92
1.514.24
0.281.64
0.682.37

T value

0.044.71

Difference

Male (150)

0.001

0.039

0.000

0.000

0.911

P value

Mean
62.164.45
61.074.73
32.363.25
33.092.92
42.564.42
43.354.22
19.172.15
19.02.21
18.423.15
18.293.13

Table 3. Symmetry of ear measurements within the sexes using paired t test. (Measurements in mm.)

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0.132.43

0.171.44

0.793.78

0.732.38

1.093.50

Difference

Female (150)

0.660

1.426

2.566

3.727

3.800

T value

0.511

0.156

0.011

0.000

0.000

P value

6
V. Murgod et al.

Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

Table 4. Ear morphometry in subjects studied and univariate sex dimorphism using t- test.
(Measurements in mm.)

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Males (150)

Females (150)

Variables

Mean

Std. Deviation

Mean

Std. Deviation

T value

P value

Left ear length (300)

Right ear length (300)
Left ear breadth (300)
Right ear breadth (300)
Left base of auricle (300)
Right base of auricle (300)
Left lobe length (300)
Right lobe length (300)
Left lobe breadth (300)
Right lobe breadth (300)

63.8
63.7
33.1
34.8
45.3
46.8
18.7
19.0
18.3
18.9

0.56
0.65
0.31
0.33
0.52
0.59
0.24
0.28
0.30
0.31

62.1
61.1
32.3
33.1
42.5
43.3
19.2
19.0
18.4
18.3

0.44
0.47
0.32
0.29
0.44
0.42
0.21
0.22
0.31
0.31

2.823
4.107
1.899
4.678
4.869
5.819
1.598
0.089
0.383
1.877

0.005
0.000
0.58
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.111
0.929
0.702

Statistically signicant

Table 5.

Discriminant Analysis using all variables and stepwise discriminant analysis.

Variables
Left ear length
Right ear length
Left ear breadth
Right ear breadth
Left base of auricle
Right base of auricle
Left lobe length
Right lobe length
Left lobe breadth
Right lobe breadth
Left physiognomic ear
index
Right physiognomic
ear index

Unstandardized
coefcient

Functional
coefcient

Standardized
coefcient

8.909
0.883
17.295
2.265
0.610
1.368
2.518
0.920
0.058
1.592
1.003

0.604
0.506
0.486
0.426
0.293
0.197
0.195
0.166
0.082
0.040
0.031

4.514
0.502
5.482
0.708
0.295
0.709
0.576
0.232
0.018
0.497
4.294

0.021

0.009

0.094

0.560
0.670
0.184
0.216
0.091

0.415
0.718
0.720
0.568
0.343

Stepwise Discrimination Analysis

Left base of auricle
Right base of auricle
Left lobe length
Right lobe length
Right physiognomic
index

0.857
1.403
3.147
1.819
0.075

Wilks Lambda = 0.763

Constant= 58.042

Group Controls:
Males = 0.556
Females = 0.556

Wilks Lamda 0.798

Constant 11.623
Group controls:
Male = 0.502;
Female = 0.502

auricle and lobe breadth was observed. Ear length, breadth and base of auricle were larger in males than in females; while lobe breadth in contrast was larger in females than
in males. The lobe length was symmetrical for both ears in males and females.
The most common type of attachment of ear lobes was the intermediate type (55%)
followed by the attached (27.6%) and free types (17.3%). This was symmetrical for
both right and left ears and also between the sexes, the predominant ear attachment was

8
Table 6.

V. Murgod et al.
Sex classication accuracy using discriminant analysis.
Male

When all the variables are used

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Cross validated accuracy when all

variables are used
Variables entering stepwise
discrimination
Cross validated accuracy of stepwise
discrimination

Female

Total

102/150
97/150

68
64.7

111/150
108/150

74
72

213/100
205/100

71
68.3

100/150

66.7

108/150

72

208/300

69.3

97/150

64.7

106/150

70.7

203/300

67.7

the intermediate type (males: 48.7% and females: 61.3%). The attachment evaluation
was based on the morphology and no metric measurements were undertaken.
The physiognomic ear index was around 519.5 43.1 for the left ears while it was
around 547.5 43.8 for the right ear in males, while in females for the left ear; the
physiognomic ear index was 521.1 42.5 and for the right; 543.1 47.2. Based on
this, the most common ear shape in our population was narrow (left: 97.3% and right:
89.3%) followed by medium (left: 2.3% and right: 9.6%) and wide (left: 1.3% and
right: 1%) irrespective of the sex of the individual.
Univariate sexual dimorphism
The univariate sex differences of all the ear variables are shown in Table 4. The left
and right ear length, right ear breadth, left and right base of auricle showed signicant
sexual dimorphism (p 6 0.001). The lobe length, breadth and physiognomic index did
not demonstrate signicant differences in males and females (p P 0.001).
Discriminant analysis
When all the variables were evaluated using multivariate analysis, i.e. discriminant
function analysis; an overall sex classication accuracy of 71% was obtained. Here,
74% of females and 68% of males were correctly identied. However, ve variables
entered into stepwise discrimination analysis, i.e. left and right lobe length, left and
right base of auricle and right physiognomic index. This analysis proved effective in
identication of sex, with overall accuracy being 69.3%, in which 66.7% of males and
72% of females were correctly recognized. Further, on cross validation, the overall sex
classication accuracy was reduced to 68.3% (Males 64.7%; Females 72%) on
using all the variables and 67.7% (Males 64.7%; Females 70.7%) on using stepwise
discriminant analysis (Table 5 and 6).
Discussion
An in-depth knowledge of the dimensions and relative position of facial structures in
different age, sex and ethnic groups is essential for facial reconstruction, both for surgical and forensic purposes. The anthropometric measurements, including those of the
ear, can be done either by direct or indirect methods. Although direct anthropometry is
ideal, indirect anthropometric techniques such as photography are also frequently used.

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Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

Measurements made on photographs, referred to as photogrammetry, have several

advantages, including simplicity, non-requirement of extensive knowledge about the
lenses, the photographs can be taken even in settings that are non-medical ofces or
laboratories, the photographs can be checked immediately for lighting, clarity and positioning and the changes required can be made and photographs can be retaken. Further,
it saves the time of the subject (5 min in comparison to the 30 min of direct measurement) and can be effortlessly used in children and uncooperative subjects where identication of the landmarks and making direct measurements would be complex [13,31].
Other advantages include simplicity of measurement; as the subjects do not move,
errors due to pressure caused during direct measurement can be avoided, the data
obtained can be stored permanently, the measurements can be repeated in the absence
of the subjects, it is non-invasive, does not incite any kind of pain and does not use
any kind of energy that can prove potentially harmful to the welfare of the subject in
the present or future [13], [20], [3134]. These digital photographs can be analysed on
the computer screen where they can be expanded to the required size to see the landmarks more clearly and even the minute variations in measurements can be clearly
identied and noted [22]. Hence, the photogrammetric technique was used for data
collection in the current study.
Pelnitz, found that the pinnae of approximately one-fth of the population are
equally sized, so four-fths of the populations are different, being evenly distributed
between right and left [7]. Only a few previous studies have reported ear symmetry
with contrasting ndings. Farkas [22] noted asymmetry between left and right ears in a
paediatric sample; however, by adulthood, he reported that the discrepancies had diminished. Barut and Aktunc [18] noted signicantly larger left ears for all parameters in
children. But Alexander et al., [10] whose data were from a mainly adult sample,
showed generally good symmetry similar to reports by Azaria [28] and Sforza [13].
However, in our study signicant asymmetry was noted in the ear length, breadth and
base of the auricle. Interestingly, the left ears were longer than the right ears while, contrastingly, the right ear breadth was larger than the left ear breadth. This has also been
previously reported by Coward et al. [33] and Barut and Aktunc [18]. In adult Jews,
the left lobule was found to be smaller than that of the right one, which is consistent
with our study; however this was not statistically signicant.
In the present study, it was observed that the mean length of the auricle in males
and females was 63.763.8 mm and 61.162.1 mm respectively. It was seen that the
mean ear length in males was more than that in females, irrespective of right or left ear.
This is in accordance with the previous studies (Table 7) [10], [11], [13] ,[14], [17],
[19], [2023], [35]. The ear length was congruent with that observed in Caucasians,
Italians, Koreans and Japanese [10], [11], [14], [17], [19], [20], [22], [23]. Surprisingly,
however, it was more than that reported in another Indian study, which focused on only
the Northwest sample [26]. We believe that our data are more representative as our
sample originated from most parts of India. It is observed in our study that the mean
length of the left ear was greater than that of the right ear, similar to the study
conducted by Bozkir et al. [17]. This reveals that the ear length varies in different
geographic regions [7].
The mean ear breadth in our study was found to be 33.134.88 mm in male and
32.333.1 mm in female subjects. The study results were comparable to studies conducted by other researchers as shown in Table 7. On comparing the mean ear width in
different samples, it was found that the highest mean ear width was seen in the Italian
sample [13] and least ear width observed in Koreans [19,20]. The mean ear width in

10
Table 7.

V. Murgod et al.
Ear length and breadth variables in different populations.

Study

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Purkait[25]
Bozkir et al. [17]
Kihwan et al. [20]
Kang et al. [19]
Ngeow et al. [31]
Sforza et al. [13]
Kalcioglu et al. [21]
Alexander et al. [10]

Population

North west Indians

Turkish Caucasians
Koreans
Koreans
Malaysian Indians
Italians
Turkish
African/Afro-Caribbean
Indian subcontinent
Caucasians
Healthcote et al. [10] British Caucasians
Farkas et al. [22]
American Caucasians
Ferrario. [23]
Italian Caucasians
Niemitz et al. [14]
Berlin Caucasians
Asai. [11]
Japanese
Present study
Indians

Male ear
Female ear Male ear
Female ear
length (mm) length(mm) width(mm) width(mm)
57.7
63.1
62.2
64.6
64.6
61.9
64.5
62.7
68.9
60.4
59.9
62.4
63.1
65
64.1
63.763.8

60.9
59.7
59.3
60.3
60.3
56.1
60.3
60.4
60.9
68

58.4
57.3
61

61.162.1

33.1
33.3
46.3
27.9
34.7
37.5

35.4
38.1

31.2
31.3
44.3
27.8
31.8
34.5

33.5
35

33.134.8

32.333.1

males was more compared to that in females in all the studies except in our study,
where contrasting results were seen, similar to that reported by Kalcioglu et al. [21]. It
was observed that as compared to the ear length, the mean breadth of the right ear was
greater than the left ear irrespective of the sex of the individual, which was similar to
the study conducted by Bozkir et al. [17].
The measurements of the base of auricle were larger in males (45.3346.8 mm) than
in females (4.254.33 cm). This was comparable to the results obtained by Neimitz
et al. [14] on the Berlin population (49 43 mm in males and 44 37mm in females).
The right base of the auricle was seen to be larger than the left in both males and
females in our study. No other data exist regarding this parameter in Indians.
The lobe length observed in our study was similar to that observed in Caucasians,
however it was larger compared to the value for Koreans. It was larger in females compared with males, which is consistent with other studies. The lobe breadth observed in
our study was lower compared with what has been observed in previous studies. It was
larger in males compared with females, which is consistent with previous reports
(Table 8).
The intermediate attachment of ear lobes was the most frequent type of ear lobe
observed in our study, regardless of the gender, followed by attached and free types.
This was different from reports on North West Indians by Sharma et al. [16]. The
present method of evaluating the attachment has been considered for simplicity and
reproducibility.
The physiognomic ear index in our study was found to be 519.5 43.1 for the left
ear and 547.5 43.8 for the right ear in males with an average of 533.5 43.5. In a
study conducted by Singh et al. [30], the physiognomic ear index was found to be 569
to 573 mm in males and 552 to 561 in females in Central India. All these studies reinforce our conclusion that most Indians have a narrow ear shape based on the physiognomic ear index.
These differences seen in different ethnic and socio-cultural groups may be governed by genetic, environmental and nutritional factors, which have an effect on the

Population

North west Indians

Turkish Caucasians
Koreans
Indians
Berlin Caucasians
Indians

Purkait [25]
Bozkir et al. [17]
Kang et al. [19]
Anu Sharma et al. [24]
Neimitz et al. [14]
Present study

Ear lobe variables reported in different studies.

Study

Table 8.

16.716.9
18.318.4
15.2
18.518.7
170.22
18.719.0

Lobe length
Male (mm)

17.517.9
15

170.18
19.019.2

Lobe length
Female (mm)

Lobe breadth
Male (mm)

18.318.9

19.620
19.419.8

22.022.2

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18.318.4

18.518.9

Lobe breadth
Female(mm)

Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences

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V. Murgod et al.

structure of the human ear. It can also be empirically said that there is no normal
appearance of ears, even among people of the same ethnic origin, which makes them as
unique as ngerprints and can aid in identication.
Although several cranial and odontometric parameters have been used in sex determination [36], the sex assessment potential of ear variables is largely unexplored. In the
present study, on using all the variables; the sex classication accuracy was 71%, with
around 68% of males and 74% of females being correctly classied. However, ve variables, i.e. the left and right base of the auricle, the left and right lobe length and the
right physiognomic index entered into stepwise discriminant analysis and gave a moderate accuracy of 69.3%. This implies that the use of these ve variables gave an almost
equal accuracy to that of using all the variables. This accuracy is almost similar to
cranial and odontometric parameters used in comparison of genders [36]. The crossvalidated accuracy also ranged from 6468.3%. No other study related to ear parameters
exists for us to compare our ndings, and we believe that ear parameters may have the
potential to serve as an adjunct for sex identication in forensic scenarios along with
other routinely used methods. Nevertheless, it is well known fact that anthropological
attributes vary among different populations, thus necessitating specic standards of
assessment for each population.
Conclusion

The current study provides detailed information about ear dimensions in the
Indian population in an age group of 1830 years. This could serve as a database
for the quantitative description of auricular morphology in Indians of the 1830
years age group considering the sex-related variations.
An additional point is the use of digital photographic analysis, which could aid
in the storage of data that can be utilized at a later date for personal identication
of both living and dead persons.
Further, this study also revealed that several morphometric variables gave a moderate to good (6971%) sex assessment accuracy, which emphasizes its utility as
an adjunct for sex estimation in Indians. Nevertheless, we believe that larger samples should be examined in detail to further validate the ndings of this study
and come to denitive conclusions.

Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge all the participants who agreed to let their ears be photographed
for this study, Dr. Ashith Acharya, Department of Forensic Odontology, SDM College of Dental
Sciences and Hospital, Dharwad for his creative inputs to conduct this study and Mr. Mallapur
for performing the statistical analysis.

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