Cranial Suture Closure for Age Estimation: Investigating Mature and Elderly Adults

Relying on cranial suture closure as an age estimation has a long and controversial history. The Meindl and Lovejoy (1985) method of scoring cranial suture closure has become the standard and remains the most widely used among practitioners, despite the development of newer methods. It was once believed that after the age of 50 years, suture closure would be unpredictable and not useful for age estimation. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a statistical difference in suture closure for older and elderly individuals. This research includes age cohorts that were excluded from previous research: older (50-60) and elderly adults (61-70). The sample consists of 120 adult skeletal individuals from the JAW Documented Human Skeletal Collection and the UTK Donated Skeletal Collection. The crania were scored using the 0 to 3 scoring method of the Chicago Standards at seven vault sites, five lateral-anterior sites, four palate sites, and four newly identified suture sites. The key results of this study show an age difference for older and elderly males, while there is no closure difference between older and elderly females. The bulk of the results show a sex difference independent of age category. This work is important for advancing knowledge of skeletal variation in older individuals.