# Animal graveyards

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-graveyards/317040>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 15, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-graveyards/317040 "2005-08-15T02:43:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-graveyards/317040/21 "2005-08-17T04:40:13Z")

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> [@yabob](#):
>
> I’ve heard that story too. I’m curious about something. Has anybody tried to figure out how the elephants can distinguish elephant bones

The size? Elephants are much larger than other animals they’d come in contact with, except for rhinos and hippos, and even then, they are larger by a good margin.

I think it would be pretty easy to tell human bones apart from animal bones. Our bones are much straighter, thinner, and just different from four-legged creatures. The only skeletons that look remotely like ours are other apes, and even then, their legs are more bowed and their skulls are way different.

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**Author:** ![Kimhotep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/34f0e0/32.png) [@Kimhotep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimhotep)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-graveyards/317040/22 "2005-08-17T19:02:45Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> allowed to interbreed freely, populations of dogs tend towards a 19" floppy-eared black and tan model.

Ah the primeval beagle. 🙂

> [@](#):
>
> I think it would be pretty easy to tell human bones apart from animal bones. Our bones are much straighter, thinner, and just different from four-legged creatures. The only skeletons that look remotely like ours are other apes, and even then, their legs are more bowed and their skulls are way different.

That’s true for an entire articulated skeleton. But long limb bones  
of deer or sheep can look very much like human limb bones.  
Ditto random vertebrae, ribs, phalanges, teeth, etc. Bones tend to  
be scattered by scavengers & water, so the context of the entire  
carcass would usually be absent. & hydrocephalic calves’ skulls can  
look a lot like partial human craniums.

[‘Bones’ by Ubelaker](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0871319047/102-4911081-9749761?v=glance) talks about this sort of thing in greater detail.

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**Author:** ![Renob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8c91f0/32.png) [@Renob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renob)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2005, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-graveyards/317040/23 "2005-08-17T19:27:26Z")

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Living in a rural area growing up and playing in the woods pretty much every day, I came across a few carcasses of animals. More often, however, I came across skulls and other bones. A lot of rural folks have animal skulls they found in the woods as decorations (at least where I come from).

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