Trajectory Effect describes?

• A. increasing discrepancy between biological & chronological age as one gets older.
• B. The path of a bullet.
• C. The progression of healing bones.
• D. The sequence of steps in an autopsy.

Answer: (A)

The Trajectory Effect is about how age estimation becomes less precise as a person gets older. In forensic anthropology, we rely on multiple skeletal and dental indicators to estimate biological age, but these indicators don’t progress in lockstep. Early in life, biological age and chronological age align fairly well, but as age increases, the differences between what the markers suggest and the person’s true age tend to grow. This widening gap—because different traits age at different rates and some markers plateau or vary more with age—is the Trajectory Effect. It captures why older individuals often yield greater uncertainty in aging estimates.

This isn’t describing the path of a projectile, nor the healing progression of bones, nor the procedural steps of an autopsy. Those are separate concepts.