Metric and morphological features of the ear in sex classification

Abstract Background The human face can reveal a great deal about a person’s identity. Age, sex, and ethnicity differences can be recognized, classified, and analyzed using facial features, which give a scientific basis for personal identification and recognition. Sex, like age and ethnicity, has a significant influence on outer ear morphology. The shape and size of the auricle, which is one of the defining features of the face, are affected by age, sex, and ethnicity. Variations in the outer ear are known to be sufficient for identification in a forensic case and can help in determining whether the suspect is guilty or not. The aim of this research is to determine whether such metric and morphological features of the ear can be used to estimate sex and how dimorphic they are. After ear measurements with ImageJ 1.52a program, statistical data was recorded and analyzed in SPSS. Results This study, which analyzed 350 people’s facial images, provides significant information for forensic applications. Among the analyzed ear morphology data, the helix and ear lobe form showed sex differences. Except for the T-PCC distance, all measurements differed significantly between sexes. Conclusions Model 1 has the greatest accuracy rate (88%) among the models created for sex estimation. Sex estimation can be performed as an effective method when the morphological and metric parameters of the ear are analyzed together.