Why do we fail in aging the skull from the sagittal suture?

The controversy over the reliability of ectocranial suture status (open vs. closed) as an age estimation stimulated the pursuit of Meindl and Lovejoy's suggestion (Meindl and Lovejoy [1985] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 68:57-66) for large scale analysis. The extent of the sagittal suture closure was assessed in 3,636 skulls from the Hamann-Todd and Terry collections. The debate over whether cranial suture ossification represents a pathologic or an age-predictable pathologic process also stimulated a comparison with age and two stress markers, hyperostosis frontalis interna and tuberculosis. Sagittal suture closure was found to be age-independent and sexually biased. The wide confidence intervals (for age) appear to preclude meaningful application of suture status for age determination. No correlation was found with the tested biological stressors.