11 August 2011
Global ID experts study Scheuer Collection at Dundee
Students from the UK, Finland, Sweden and the United States and practitioners from the FBI and the Netherlands Forensic Institute are at the University of Dundee this month to take part in a unique course in the study of juvenile skeletal remains.
The Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) at the University of Dundee holds the Scheuer Collection, the only active repository in the world for juvenile skeletal remains.
'Following recent curation of the collection, kindly funded by the Mathew Trust, the Scheuer Collection is recognised as a first class resource for those forensic practitioners who are involved in identification of the child,' said Professor Sue Black, Director of CAHID.
'This is a very important area of education and research but one where there are very few opportunities due largely to the paucity of available material.
The two-week-long instructional course taking place this month is led by Dr Craig Cunningham and supported by Lucina Hackman and Professor Black, who together wrote the award-winning text, 'Developmental Juvenile Osteology'.
The course was run for the first time last year and was praised for offering the opportunity to study with expert instructors and work with the collections.
'Access to the Scheuer collection is a unique experience that can only be offered at Dundee and it is a tremendously rewarding experience to see practitioners from around the work who recognise the importance of the resources that we have at Dundee,' said Professor Black.
The Scheuer Collection is believed to be the only active repository for juvenile skeletal remains held anywhere in the world. It consists of the remains of over 100 sub-adult individuals, collected from archaeological and historical anatomical sources.
The collection is composed of a combination of complete skeletons, partial skeletons and isolated skeletal elements.
The material offers significant opportunities to address areas of education and research into skeletal development that have largely been ignored in the past due to a paucity of material.
Currently there are a number of on-going research projects investigating previously neglected areas of skeletal development. 'These research projects are beginning to produce some very exciting and unexpected results which challenge some established theories on skeletal growth and development,' said Professor Black.
'As this is an active repository, the collection continues to grow with the addition of new skeletal elements which are primarily obtained from other anatomy departments who wish to curate their juvenile skeletal material in a recognised and dedicated collection.'
The Scheuer collection has formed the basis of three seminal textbooks on developmental osteology which are regarded as the primary reference resources for the identification of juvenile skeletal remains.
The Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee is an internationally leading centre in the fields of human identification, forensic anthropology, cranio-facial reconstruction and the study of the human body.
Professor Black is currently spearheading a major fundraising campaign - `Million For A Morgue’ - to build a new morgue at the University to allow researchers to adopt the Thiel method of embalming. This gives surgeons, dentists, students and medical researchers a more realistic method of testing techniques, practising procedures and developing new equipment and approaches. For more information see www.millionforamorgue.com.
For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
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