The MNI is the Minimum Number of Individuals MNI calculator
01.05 The Human Skeleton
1. How many bones are in the collection?
There are 22 Number
... [Show More] of Identified Specimens, NISP, which includes: 3 skulls, 6 femora (4 right and 2 left), 4 hip bones (1 right and 3 left), 2 humeri (right), 2 tibiae (left), and 5 scapulae (3 right and 2 left.)
2. Which of the bones in the collection belong to the axial skeleton? Which belong to the appendicular skeleton?
The bones that belong to the axial skeleton are: the 3 skulls.
The bones that belong to the appendicular skeleton are: the 5 scapulae, the 2 humerus, the 2 tibiae, the 6 femora, and the 4 hip bones.
3. What is the maximum number of individuals who could be represented by these bones? Explain your answer. (Hint: Assume every bone in the collection could be from a different person.)
The maximum number of individuals who could represent by these bones are 22 individuals since we do not know if those bones are from the same person until we run a proper forensic laboratory to identify the DNA and examine the gender, age, height, race, medical history and manner of death for each bones.
4. The MNI is the Minimum Number of Individuals—the lowest number of individuals needed to account for the bones present. Print out this Bone Collection Worksheetto help you calculate the MNI. It contains all the bones in the collection: 3 skulls, 6 femora, 4 os coxae, 2 humeri, 2 tibiae, and 5 scapulae. How many skeletons can you make from the bones in the worksheet? Recreate the skeletons and submit a picture of your skeletons to your instructor with each of the bones labeled. (Helpful Hint: Multiple bones of the same type can belong to the same individual. For example, one person has two femur bones, one on the right and one on the left.)
The Minimum Number of Individuals, MNI, who could represent by these bones are 4 individuals. The reason why is that each person would have 2 femora bones in their body, but there are 6 femora bones found and 4 of them are right femora bones. At first, my team thinks that there would be 3 individuals by comparing the number of skulls and femora; but, normal human being cannot have 2 right femora bones, so we came up with a conclusion that there are 4 individuals.
5. Why do you think the MNI is important when working in a scenario like this?
The MNI is important when working with a scenario like this because you know the least amount of individuals which is 4 and the number of individuals can be larger than 4 because we estimated the maximum number of individuals is 22; but, the MNI cannot be smaller than 4 because our recreation shows that there are more femora right bones than the femora bones needed for only 3 individuals. So, the MNI shows us that the individuals that are missing can be more than 4 but cannot be smaller than 4 which will help the police have more clues to find out more about the case and their report.
6. What do you tell the sheriff?
I would tell the sheriff that there are at least 4 individuals involve in the case and the number of individuals can be up to 22 individuals. We might be able to find out who they are if we can collect more evidence and run a forensic laboratory to find out who they are. [Show Less]