Once the remains are collected and placed in individual bags or boxes, they should be transferred from the site to the laboratory or morgue. The bones should be cleaned and laid out in anatomical position for examination. The innominate bone, which comprises the pelvis, offers the most definitive traits. The second-most important bone is the humerus or femur. Determination of sex from pre-adult bones is rather difficult to define.
Some anthropologists try to compare stages of tooth calcification with the stages of maturation.
They assume that in boys, the post-cranial skeleton matures more slowly than in girls, while the rate of calcification of the teeth is about the same. The skull, which for decades was a favorite and only attribute of sex determination, recently became less popular. All skull features have been proven to be relatively subjective and therefore forensic anthropologists prefer to use the much more objective traits of pubic bones for sex determination. Nevertheless, the skull should be used additionally in the assessment. Since most forensic pathologists feel much more comfortable examining the skull than other bones, examination of the skull in regards to sex determination shouldn t be abandoned in the analysis of unknown human skeletal remains.