Is it possible to determine a person's pigmentation by their bones?

Question

Is it possible to determine a person's pigmentation by their bones?

Answer 1

Medical examiner can predict what race or pigmentation by their bones, we see this all the time on TV programs.

Answer 2

No.  Although forensic anthropologists frequently rely on skeletal features to assign race to a skeleton, they are at best making guesses based on assumptions based on skeletal collections from last century.  Television shows like CSI would have you believe that racial characteristics are inherent in your skeleton, but they're not.  The vast majority of traits that we recognize as "racial" are truly only skin deep.

It is possible to make inferences about a skeleton's s*x with more accuracy, however, given that there are sexual traits that are usually present (e.g., the shape of the pelvis and certain symphyses).

Answer 3

Africans have more calcium in their bones so they tend to be heaver than non African bones. (meaning black African, not Arabs of North Africa.)

Answer 4

Ancient bones, no. Modern bones yes, because forensic anthropologists are pretty good at tagging skulls with their modern ethnic group, and fleshing them out well enough to be recognised. But it's really just a reasonably accurate guess. DNA is coming along so that we can tell someones race, so if there's DNA in the bones, they probably could tell you the colour. The tests would be expensive though.

http://www.anthrogirl.com/anthropage/rac...

Also, mineral analysis of isotopes in bones can tell you where a person grew up, giving you another clue to their colouring and ethnicity.

Answer 5

Medical examiners do it all the time to figure out the race of a person. Age and s*x.

Answer 6

No, not at all. You can, however, sometimes get a good idea about race by looking at bones and facial features (based on the skull). But it's not 100% accurate by any means, and if the person is of mixed race, the analysis will fail. And this is only applicable for modern peoples. If you are talking about people from thousands of years ago, when facial features were distributed differently around the globe, then this cannot be determined.