IBIS. An acronym for Integrated Ballistics Identification System, a database developed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to compare marking on fired bullets.

NIBIN is a national database of digital images of spent bullets and cartridge cases that were found at crime scenes or test-fired from confiscated weapons. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) manages the system and provides the equipment to crime labs around the country.

There are three types of fingerprints that can be found: latent, patent, and plastic. Latent fingerprints are made of the sweat and oil on the skin’s surface. This type of fingerprint is invisible to the naked eye and requires additional processing in order to be seen.

Answer: The first thing to do is carbon dating, to find out how old these bones are. Explanation: Carbon dating is done by a technique called “Carbon-14” and is performed when a skeleton is found to determine how many years have passed since the death of that organism.

It’s impossible to identify a person’s ancestry definitively from a single bone. Investigators can also take bone measurements using calipers, then input the data into a University of Tennessee database containing a reference library of measurements from more than 1,800 bones of known ancestry, age, and gender.

When the deceased date of death is also known, chronological age can be determined. Radiocarbon dating of dental enamel has recently been used with very high precision to determine the date of birth of identified and unidentified individuals (3, 4).

Bone, tendon, and skin can survive as long as 8 to 12 hours. The brain, however, appears to accumulate ischemic injury faster than any other organ. Without special treatment after circulation is restarted, full recovery of the brain after more than 3 minutes of clinical death at normal body temperature is rare.

Consult a scientist who specializes in teeth, known as an odontologist. They can determine how old a person was at death, what kind of health they were in and what kind of diet they had. Examine where the ribs join the sternum. This is also a good indicator of age.

In manual methods, facial reconstruction is done by using clay, plastic or wax directly on the victim’s skull or more often a replica of the skull which has to be identified. The markers are inserted into small holes on the skull cast at specific strategic points or landmarks.

Reconstructions only reveal the type of face a person may have exhibited because of artistic subjectivity. The position and general shape of the main facial features are mostly accurate because they are greatly determined by the skull.

The police used technology called snapshot DNA phenotyping that can determine a person’s eye, skin and hair color, facial features and ancestry to create mugshots of what the suspect may have looked like at 25, 45 and 65 years old. The profile did not account for weight, facial hair or other features like scars.

collar bone

human pelvis

The bone density is quite a bit higher in the African Americans. It is also higher in men than in women. Asian persons tend to have bone density that is as low or even lower than Caucasians. Hispanic people have bone density that is about the same or a little bit higher than Caucasians.

Within the same population, males tend to have larger, more robust bones and joint surfaces, and more bone development at muscle attachment sites. However, the pelvis is the best sex-related skeletal indicator, because of distinct features adapted for childbearing.

The femur (thigh bone) of a male is thicker than a females. The angle of the femur in relation to the pelvis is greater in females than males. Directions: Read the information provided in the following link to help you distinguish between male and female skeletons.

There are generally three levels of identification that can be utilized to distinguish between human and non-human animal bones: 1) gross skeletal anatomy, 2) bone macrostructure, and 3) bone microstructure (histology).

We can also assess ancestral origins by looking at the skeleton itself. The bones of the skull express inherited features from one generation to the next. Measuring the cranium gives us information that is similar to that from DNA.

Tooth enamel

The strongest muscle based on its weight is the masseter. With all muscles of the jaw working together it can close the teeth with a force as great as 55 pounds (25 kilograms) on the incisors or 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms) on the molars.

According to the Mohs Hardness Scale, tooth enamel earns a 5. That means it’s about as hard, or harder, than steel. For reference, diamonds are the strongest substance on earth, ranking 10 on the Mohs scale.