Nonhuman Bone Research Articles

Inter-Species Variation in Bone Mineral Behavior upon Heating*,†

The characterization of inter-species variation in bone mineral (b-HAP) is of relevance to forensic science and archaeology, but has not previously been widely explored. Results of an investigation into unheated bone mineral and behavior of bone upon heating for 12 animal species (including human) demonstrate that b-HAP characteristics, quantitatively measured using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, exhibit significant inter-species variation. Human bone was found to be significantly different to all other species in terms of b-HAP lattice parameter values from unheated and heated bone and in terms of recrystallization behavior of b-HAP upon heating bone to 600°C. The amounts of b-HAP thermal decomposition products were also significantly different for human bone heated to 1400°C compared to those obtained for most other species. Therefore, there is potential for the development of an XRD-based method of species identification, particularly one that distinguishes human from non-human bone.

Long bone morphometrics for human from non-human discrimination

Forensic anthropologists are frequently required to verify the human origin of complete and partial skeletal remains. This determination, however, can be difficult for bone fragments with few or no distinctive morphological markers. Current methods of distinguishing human from non-human bone fragments include microscopic, immunological and DNA testing, which are each limited to some degree (e.g. time consuming and expensive). The purpose of this study is to investigate an alternative morphometric approach to quantify the external structure of human long bones (humeri, femora, and tibiae) compared to quadrupedal (sheep, dog, and pig) and bipedal (kangaroo and emu) animals common to Australia. Eight traditional measurements were taken on a sample of 50 human and at least 10 of each of the five animal species; measurements were then analysed using linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The results expectedly indicate enough variation between species to correctly assign an unknown bone as that of a human or non-human, with cross-validated classification accuracy of 95% or better. More importantly, however, the technique also proved to be accurate if only a fragment of the diaphysis is analysed; classification accuracy 63–99%. The results of this study, therefore, outline a forensically useful non-invasive method to distinguish human from animal bones.

A re-examination of the cortical thickness of the femur as an aid to distinguishing between human and non-human bone fragments

A re-examination of the cortical thickness of the femur as an aid to distinguishing between human and non-human bone fragments

A study to differentiate between human and nonhuman long bone pattern

Identification of human or nonhuman origin in skeletal remains is vital in assisting the police and investigating officers, and it can be difficult in fragmented remains. About 25–30% of medicolegal cases involving nonhuman skeletal remains have been mistaken for human (Bass, 1995). Literature showed that histomorphometric differentiation between human and nonhuman bone was lacking, and needs further research. The objective of this study was to differentiate between human and nonhuman (mammal) long bone by using a histomorphometric method. Some 64 human bones and 65 animal bones were collected from the mortuary of the UKMMC (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre) and the zoos in Malaysia, respectively. A standardised method modified from Caropresso (2000) was used to produce bone thin sections. Assessments were made on ten microstructuralparameters using image analysis. Discriminant function analysis showed correct classification rates for 81.4% of cases, with identification accuracy of 96.9% for human and 66.2% for animal (p

Histomorphological Discrimination between Human and Nonhuman Bones of Fragmentary Osteal Remains: Analyses of Burnt Bones from the Ancient Heian Site in the Northern Tohoku District, Japan

骨の組織形態学的検討は，動物種の同定に有効な方法である。青森県朝日山（2）遺跡から平安時代の焼骨片が出土したが，小片のため肉眼形態観察では種の同定が困難であった。そこでヒトかそれ以外の動物なのか鑑別することを目的として，出土四肢骨骨幹部片4点を薄切し，骨組織形態の観察と計測的検討を行なった。比較資料として，ヒト・クマ・ウマ・イノシシ・ニホンジカ・カモシカ・ウシの四肢長骨を用いた。比較資料の骨組織形態計測の結果，ヒトのハバース管の面積（H.Ar）とオステオンの面積に対するハバース管の面積の比（H-On示数）は他の動物より有意に大きい傾向があり，人獣鑑別の指標として優れていた。朝日山（2）遺跡出土焼骨について，焼成による収縮の影響を考慮しながら検討した結果，出土骨試料4点のうち3点は人骨とみなしてさしつかえないと考えられた。残る1点はヒトあるいはウマの可能性があるが，どちらかといえばヒトに近いと考えられた。出土焼骨は火葬された人骨と推察され，平安時代の青森地方に火葬習俗が存在した可能性が示唆された。

Review of: Human and Nonhuman Bone Identification: A Color Atlas

Review of: <i>Human and Nonhuman Bone Identification: A Color Atlas</i>

Distinguishing human from non-human bone-comparative cortical bone thickness in the tibia

Distinguishing human from non-human bone-comparative cortical bone thickness in the tibia

The Effect of Strain Rate on the Mechanical Properties of Human Cortical Bone

Bone mechanical properties are typically evaluated at relatively low strain rates. However, the strain rate related to traumatic failure is likely to be orders of magnitude higher and this higher strain rate is likely to affect the mechanical properties. Previous work reporting on the effect of strain rate on the mechanical properties of bone predominantly used nonhuman bone. In the work reported here, the effect of strain rate on the tensile and compressive properties of human bone was investigated. Human femoral cortical bone was tested longitudinally at strain rates ranging between 0.14-29.1 s(-1) in compression and 0.08-17 s(-1) in tension. Young's modulus generally increased, across this strain rate range, for both tension and compression. Strength and strain (at maximum load) increased slightly in compression and decreased (for strain rates beyond 1 s(-1)) in tension. Stress and strain at yield decreased (for strain rates beyond 1 s(-1)) for both tension and compression. In general, there seemed to be a relatively simple linear relationship between yield properties and strain rate, but the relationships between postyield properties and strain rate were more complicated and indicated that strain rate has a stronger effect on postyield deformation than on initiation of yielding. The behavior seen in compression is broadly in agreement with past literature, while the behavior observed in tension may be explained by a ductile to brittle transition of bone at moderate to high strain rates.

Rodents as Taphonomic Agents: Bone Gnawing by Brown Rats and Gray Squirrels*

Passive infrared technology was used to film diurnal and nocturnal scavenging behavior of brown rats and gray squirrels at the University of Tennessee's Anthropological Research Facility. This direct documentation demonstrated that brown rats modified fat-laden cancellous bone while gray squirrels generally gnawed the thicker bone cortices only after fats had leached away. A case study placed in a shaded portion of the Facility indicated the postmortem interval for initial gnawing by gray squirrels was slightly over 30 months. An examination of 53 human skeletons in the William M. Bass Forensic Skeletal Collection revealed that 10 cases had gnaw marks consistent with those made by gray squirrels. One of the 10 cases had been gnawed within 16 months of time-since-death, while the remaining nine had postmortem intervals >30 months. Additional observed modifications made to nonhuman bone by gray squirrels indicate that squirrel gnaw marks on bone can serve as a minimal estimate of time-since-death in a temperate environment similar to that of East Tennessee.

Differentiating Human Bone from Animal Bone: A Review of Histological Methods

This review brings together a complex and extensive literature to address the question of whether it is possible to distinguish human from nonhuman bone using the histological appearance of cortical bone. The mammalian species included are rat, hare, badger, racoon dog, cat, dog, pig, cow, goat, sheep, deer, horse, water buffalo, bear, nonhuman primates, and human and are therefore not exhaustive, but cover those mammals that may contribute to a North American or Eurasian forensic assemblage. The review has demonstrated that differentiation of human from certain nonhuman species is possible, including small mammals exhibiting Haversian bone tissue and large mammals exhibiting plexiform bone tissue. Pig, cow, goat, sheep, horse, and water buffalo exhibit both plexiform and Haversian bone tissue and where only Haversian bone tissue exists in bone fragments, differentiation of these species from humans is not possible. Other primate Haversian bone tissue is also not distinguishable from humans. Where differentiation using Haversian bone tissue is undertaken, both the general microstructural appearance and measurements of histological structures should be applied. Haversian system diameter and Haversian canal diameter are the most optimal and diagnostic measurements to use. Haversian system density may be usefully applied to provide an upper and lower limit for humans.

Nonhuman Remains and Relics Encountered by the Medical Examiner

Medical examiner and coroner offices occasionally respond to "death scenes" which, after investigation, are found to involve nonhuman remains or other relics not requiring further investigation or certification of death. This report describes such cases encountered by the Fulton County medical examiner during 2003 and 2004. The electronic database used by the office contains check boxes to indicate whether a reported case involved nonhuman remains or other relics, in which case the name of the "deceased" is listed as "nonhuman remains" by selecting those words from a pull-down menu. Subject cases were identified during the 2-year period by searching the database for any case in which one of the boxes was checked or in which the name of the deceased was listed as nonhuman. Four thousand five hundred fifty-four deaths were investigated during the 2-year period, and 23 cases (0.5%) involved nonhuman remains or relics. Thus, the observed rate was about 5 cases per 1000 death investigations. Nineteen cases involved nonhuman bones. One case involved 2 human fetuses that had been teaching specimens. The other 3 cases involved a nonhuman fetus, a large decomposing dog that had been wrapped and dumped in residential area, and a sheep heart found in a bag which was a medical teaching specimen. Nonhuman remains and other relics are uncommonly seen in death investigation work and usually involve nonhuman bones, although a small variety of other atypical cases present themselves occasionally. Knowledge of these types of encounters is helpful so that the "unexpected" may become more "expected" and office policy and procedures tailored accordingly to facilitate case management.

Su.117. A New Method for the Generation of Nonhuman Primate Bone Marrow-Derived Immature Dendritic Cells

Su.117. A New Method for the Generation of Nonhuman Primate Bone Marrow-Derived Immature Dendritic Cells

The Effects of Skeletal Preparation Techniques on DNA from Human and Non-Human Bone

The forensic pathologist increasingly relies on the forensic anthropologist to be the consulting expert in human identification. Likewise, if identification is not possible from visual inspection of skeletal remains, the forensic biologist may be called upon to conduct DNA analysis. The possibility of downstream DNA testing needs to be considered when skeletal preparation techniques are employed to deflesh human remains, as they have the potential to strongly impact genetic analyses and subsequent identification. In this study, three cleaning techniques, boiling bone in water, in bleach, and in powdered detergent/sodium carbonate, were tested for their effect on nuclear and mtDNA recovery from a variety of human and non-human bones. A statistically significant reduction in DNA yields occurred in non-human bones cleaned with bleach, and DNA degradation was apparent electrophoretically. The human bones also showed much lower yields from bleach cleaning, while the detergent/carbonate method allowed the largest segments of DNA to be amplified, indicating it may have a less degradative effect on bone DNA than either of the other cleaning processes.

Rapid prehistoric extinction of iguanas and birds in Polynesia.

The Tongoleleka archaeological site on Lifuka Island, Kingdom of Tonga, is a rich accumulation of pottery, marine mollusks, and nonhuman bones that represents first human contact on a small island in Remote Oceania approximately 2,850 years ago. The lower strata contain decorated Lapita-style pottery and bones of an extinct iguana (Brachylophus undescribed sp.) and numerous species of extinct birds. The upper strata instead feature Polynesian Plainware pottery and bones of extant species of vertebrates. A stratigraphic series of 20 accelerator-mass spectrometer radiocarbon dates on individual bones of the iguana, an extinct megapode (Megapodius alimentum), and the non-native chicken (Gallus gallus) suggests that anthropogenic loss of the first two species and introduction of the latter occurred on Lifuka within a time interval too short (a century or less) to be resolved by radiometric dating. The geologically instantaneous prehistoric collapse of Lifuka's vertebrate community contrasts with the much longer periods of faunal depletion on some other islands, thus showing that the elapse time between human arrival and major extinction events was highly variable on oceanic islands as well as on continents.

Validation of X-Ray Fluorescence-Measured Swine Femur Lead against Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

The aim of this study was to apply the technique of (109)Cd-based K-shell X-ray fluorescence (XRF) bone lead measurements to swine femurs and to validate the concentrations obtained therefrom against an independent chemical measurement of bone lead: atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The femurs ranged in lead concentration from 1.0 to 24.5 microg of lead per gram of ashed bone, as measured by AAS. On average, XRF overestimated AAS-measured femur lead by 2.6 microg/g [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-4.0 microg/g], approximately 2 microg/g poorer than that observed in studies of human tibiae. Measurements of swine femur and, by extension, of nonhuman bones may require adjustment of the XRF spectrum peak extraction method.

Clovis and Early Archaic Crania from the Anzick Site (24PA506), Park County, Montana

The Anzick archaeological site in Montana, known since 1968, has been recognized since 1974 as Clovis age because of the lithic material recovered. Now it is possible to assert that some, but not all, of the recovered skeletal material is also Clovis age. The site contained more than 100 stone and nonhuman bone artifacts in association with the partial skeletal remains of a young child. All were covered with red ocher. The partial cranium of a second youth, not stained red, was also recovered. Recently, radiocarbon dating of these two crania produced two separate ages, 2000 years apart. Forensic examination of the remains, completed in 1999, has determined their ages at death. This site, an important addition to New World prehistory, contains not only the largest single assemblage of Clovis artifacts but also the only known Clovis skeletal remains.

Differences in Osteon Banding Between Human and Nonhuman Bone

The objective of this paper is to compare patterns of osteon organization in human and nonhuman bone. A linear organization of Haversian systems in nonhuman bone, where osteons line up in rows, has been reported but has not been quantified. The present research provides a quantitative examination of this observation through a comparative analysis of the femoral midshaft from human and nonhuman bone. Femoral midshaft thin sections from 60 humans were compared to femoral midshaft sections from nine sheep and six miniature swine. The presence or absence of osteon banding was recorded and, if present, described. Results indicate that 2 out of 60 human sections and 5 out of 15 nonhuman sections exhibit osteon banding (chi2 = 9.46; p < 0.01). Further, the type of banding present in the human and nonhuman samples is easily distinguished, indicating that human and nonhuman bone can be distinguished where handing is present in this study.

Dating of Mikkabi Human Remains from Japan.

Human skeletal remains were recovered in 1959 and 1961 from Tadaki Quarry at Mikkabi, central Japan. The mammalian fauna of the site includes extinct species of elephant (Palaeoloxodon naumanni) and giant deer (Sinomegaceros sp.), and the Mikkabi human remains have been considered to date back to the Late Pleistocene. Radiocarbon dating and revised fluorine dating of the human and non-human bones, however as we report here, show that the faunal remains from the Mikkabi site have a wide age range extending from the Late Pleistocene to the early Holocene, and also lead to the conclusion that the Mikkabi hominids are attributable to the early Holocene.

Fijian cannibalism and mortuary ritual: bioarchaeological evidence from Vunda

The human skeletal remains from the site of Vunda (AD 800–1600) in Fiji have been interpreted as evidence of cannibalism. The cannibalism hypothesis is tested by examining the modifications of the Vunda skeletal sample. The sample consists of human and non-human bones from a midden context, as well as intact human burials extracted from the midden. Most modifications are more common in the medium mammal sample than in the midden human sample—burning (9% of medium mammal remains and 5% of human remains), cutmarks (4 and 1.5%), percussion pits (1 and 0%), and peeling (2 and 0%)—though these differences are not statistically significant. There are no significant differences between the human burials and the midden human sample in the rates of cutmarks, percussion pits, peeling, or in the pattern of element representation. Therefore the cannibalism hypothesis is not supported at Vunda. Most of the ‘midden’ human remains were probably part of the formal burials. The modifications and context of the Vunda sample are compared with the remains from the nearby, partially contemporaneous site of Navatu (where an inference of cannibalism is supported) to tentatively establish the characteristics of Fijian mortuary rituals versus cannibalism. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Fijian cannibalism: osteological evidence from Navatu.

The hypothesis that the human remains from the Navatu midden (50 BC to AD 1900) in Fiji represent cannibalized individuals was tested by an analysis of the skeletal remains. The site includes formal human burials and a separate, contemporaneous midden containing commingled fragmentary human and nonhuman bones. All remains were examined for a variety of modifications. The medium mammal and human remains in the midden have similar modifications: ancient breaks (92% of midden human specimens and 88% of medium mammal specimens), burning (29% and 11%), crushing (1% and 1%), cutmarks (9% and 8%), peeling (4% and 1%), and percussion pits (1% and 1%). The human burials (for which cannibalism had not been hypothesized) are essentially unmodified except for some breakage. The pattern of element representation and low incidence of animal bitemarks rules out carnivores and rodents as major modifiers of the assemblage. The breakage patterns, element representation, light weathering, and rarity of random striae indicate that sediment pressure, wave action, weathering, and trampling did not significantly alter the remains. The modifications of the midden human and nonhuman remains generally correspond in type and frequency. The evaluation of the assemblage's taphonomic history suggests that most of the modifications were caused by humans. The Navatu midden human sample does not resemble assemblages interpreted as secondary burials with defleshing, nor does it resemble violence-derived assemblages. The burials at Navatu and other Fijian sites indicate that the various noncannibalistic Fijian mortuary rituals do not mimic butchery and consumption. Therefore, the hypothesis of cannibalism at Navatu is supported.