Ear morphology and morphometry as potential forensic tools for identification of the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba populations of Nigeria

Abstract Background The human external ear is unique in every individual terms of shape, size and dimension making it suitable forensic anthropology for sex estimation personal identification purposes. study aimed to evaluate sexual dimorphism ethnic specificity the major Nigerian populations. Results There was variation morphological features sampled subjects. vary right left ears both sexes groups. All variables were statistically significant ( p < 0.05) except width. Univariate discriminant function gave prediction accuracies between 56.4 57.3% ears, respectively. Population-specific accuracy using stepwise analysis ranged 58–69.7% 57.5–74.2% ear. Conclusion parameters showed potential estimation, but cannot be solely relied upon identification.