Morphometric analysis of dog bitemarks. An experimental study

Dog attacks on humans represent a global issue with significant health and medico-legal implications. A dog attack may cut or puncture a victim's skin resulting in distinctive lesions representing the morphology of the dentition that created it. Analysing the compatibility of dog bite marks is exceedingly intricate due to numerous variables involved in wound dynamics. The primary parameter under evaluation is the inter-canine distance, representing the space between two canine teeth within the same dental arch. However, a limitation arises when suspected dogs have similar skull sizes, particularly among adults of the same breed and no studies have been identified that experimentally analyze bite marks on human tissues. The aim of this experimental study is to conduct a morphometric comparison between the dental measurements of canine teeth from 20 different dogs and the skin lesions produced on human tissue. Two metric parameters were assessed: “inter-canine distance” and "interdental incisor-canine distance". The inter-canine measurements ranged between 21 and 52 mm, and 20–53 mm on skin. The incisor-to-canine measures ranged between 5 and 21 mm, and 4–21 mm on skin. The degree of agreement for all inter-canine measurements is high, regardless of the type of arch or skull (superior-inferior or mesocephalic-dolichocephalic-brachycephalic). Conversely, the agreement for incisor-to-canine measurements is high in measurements obtained from the lower arches and brachycephalic skulls. Considering the promising results shown by the morphological and morphometric analysis reported in the study, a multidisciplinary approach, fostering collaboration between forensic experts in pathology, dentistry, anthropology, DNA and veterinary medicine, is essential for a comprehensive evaluation of bite marks.