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Abstract Forensic anthropology is the practical application of anthropology to law, especially in questions related to medicolegal identity and forensic medicine. In forensics, methods involving physical anthropology present high rate of accuracy for human identification and gender estimation. This study aimed to ascertain sexual dimorphism using different craniofacial variables among Igbo and Yoruba young adults. Some craniofacial variables were measured in 300 undergraduates from University of Lagos using physical anthropometry. The mean values of all the craniofacial features studied were higher in males compared to females. Igbo students had significantly (p≤0.05) higher mean height, weight, morphological facial height (MFH), morphological facial breadth (MFB), intercanthal difference (ID), nose length (LN), left eye width (LEW), exocanthii to exocanthii (EX-EX) and subnasale to gnathion (SN-GN) values compared to Yoruba students. The mean prosopic index of the Igbo male (94.5%), Igbo females (94.6%) and Yoruba females (93.92%) showed Leptoprosopic facial shape while the Yoruba males (97.52%) were hyperleptoprosopic. The mean nasal index of Igbo females (Leptorrhine) was significantly (p≤0.05) low compared to Igbo males and the Yoruba males and females i.e. Mesorrhine. Pearson correlation shows that age, height, weight and sex correlated with MFH, MFB, ID, LN, nose width (WN), Chelion to chelion distance (CH-CH), EX-EX, SN-GN at 0.01 and 0.05 levels of significance at distinct points. Sex was significant with height, weight, MFH, MFB, ID, CH-CH, LEW, EX-EX, SN-GN at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). This study shows that height, weight, MFH, MFB, ID, CH-CH, LEW, EX-EX and SN-GN can be used to predict sex.

Keywords Forensic anthropology; Human identification; Gender estimation; Craniofacial; Prosopic index

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