telling pelves apart...

Next session you are going to be comparing male and female pelves (plural for pelvis). You will be looking for differences between human male and female pelves that would allow you to tell if an unknown pelvis was from a man or woman.

I think one of the biggest challenges in this exercise will be identifying the different parts of the pelvis...

I found this diagram of a pelvis that I thought showed nice and clearly the main regions of a pelvis:

image taken from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_pelvis

In the diagram above, the numbers refer to:

 1. The Sacrum

 2. The Ilium

 3. The Ischium

 4. The Pubic Bone

 5. The Pubic Symphysis (where the two pubic bones meet)

 6. The Acetabulum (where the femur bone joins the pelvis)

 7. The Obturator Foramen

 8. The Coccyx (also known as the tail bone, this is below the Sacrum - number 1 above)

 The red line represents the Pelvic Brim.

Here are a couple of nice diagrams that show the main differences between male and female pelves....

image taken from: http://anth3455.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/archaeological-methods-for-preschool.html 

image taken from : http://cnx.org/content/m46375/latest/?collection=col11496/latest

 It seems that in females there has always been an evolutionary compromise between this pelvic outlet being large enough for childbirth, but the entire pelvis not becoming too wide that women can't walk!