This document discusses methods for determining whether fragmented bone material is human or non-human. It outlines gross morphological differences visible to the naked eye, such as fused epiphyses in juvenile human long bones versus curved long bones in small mammals. Microscopic examination can reveal larger Haversian systems in human bone. Serological tests like precipitin reactions and collagen fingerprinting extract protein signatures to identify the species. DNA analysis of conserved mitochondrial RNA regions can also determine if a bone sample is human.
3. Introduction
We can recognize bones as part of a complete skeleton.
Most of us can recognize individual intact bones also.
The recognition task becomes more difficult if we are faced
with fragmented bones.
Many common materials, such as plastic or pieces of tree
root, have been confused with bone.
A fragment of cranial vault bone can be confused with turtle
shell.
5. 1. Gross Examination
Human bone Non –human bone
Juvenile human long bone have
separate epiphysis or may not posses
all.
A small adult non –human animal will
display fused epiphysis.
Long bone is straight in human Long bone shaft of small mammals
be noticeably curved.
Human juvenile pelvis size is still in
multiple pieces.
Small pelvis is fused in one unit in non-
human pelvis.
a. Human child pelvis
b. Pelvis of raccoon
Book: Forensic Recovery of Human Remains
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Fibula does not normally fuse to the
tibia unless there is pathology such as
ossification of ligaments.
In small animals including mammals the
fibula is reduced in size and is fused to
shaft of the tibia .
Radius- ulna have straight diaphysis
remain unfused thought life.
Some larger mammals species eg. Pig,
sheep, deer have a curved and fused
radius-ulna.
Human bone Non –human bone
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en.wikipedia.org
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(A) Bear foot (B) human foot. The human foot is a right
foot; the bear foot is a left foot. Both are viewed from
above.
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Bones on left are a bears paw.
The hand on right is of human
Source:The Use of Forensic Anthropology, Second Edition
9. Cross section of Human and Non-
Human bone(Humerus)
Cortex-Hard Compact bone
Cancellous- spongy bone centre
Large mammal (1/3) Human (1/4) Bird (1/8)
10. 2. Microscopic examination
Microscopic examination revels true
Haversian systems and presence of
osteons in human larger in diameter
than animal.
Microscopic sections of
A. cow and
B. human cortical bone.
The arrows indicate Haversian
systems in the human bone.
11. 3. Serological Examination
Precipitin test can be done by extracting
species specific protein from bone tested
against specific antisera of human.
For this the techniques like gel diffusion and
electrophoresis can be used.
The technique, known as collagen
fingerprinting, allows scientists to visualize
distinct chemical signatures in collagen, the
main structural protein in bone, that are
often species-specific.
13. Finally it is possible to determine if a piece of bone is human
or not through an analysis of DNA .
Studies have achieved success at species identification
through test of highly conserved regions of mitochondrial 12S
and 16S ribosomal RNA .(yang et.al.2014)
