# Found a bone **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181 "2008-04-28T03:52:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/21 "2008-04-29T12:42:15Z")
[QUOTE=picunurse] **si\_blakely** , I was a lab assistant for the collede I was attending. We moved to a new campus. [/QUOTE] I take it the new campus was to be manned by a skeleton staff. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/22 "2008-04-29T12:51:09Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] This doesn’t seem like very good advice to me (although I confess I am not an expert in matters legal etc) - I would have thought it best to leave things as undisturbed as possible until the police have eliminated the possibility of it being human remains from a recent murder or something. [/QUOTE] Unless the OP cleans it up or digs around, he probably won’t disturb much. Since the skeleton, or bone is in fact already skeletonized, there wouldn’t be to much left to fiddle with anyway. If he DOES have a human remain, it would be good to know, as the cops apparently are ignorant of it. If he doesn’t then he’s not wasted a lot of time and money to find out he’s got fido’s leftovers. Take it to a museum, nature center or post a pic. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/23 "2008-04-29T13:12:12Z")
What time and money would the OP waste? Show it to the police, they show it to the local Quincey who is an expert at anatomy and will know immediately if its human. No huge expense required to say if it is, or isn’t human. ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/24 "2008-04-29T13:35:42Z")
Well I don’t know where the OP lives. Maybe in a smaller town it would go that way. Around here, it would mean a statement, paperwork, a trip for the bone at least over to the ME office, and because they’d have possible human remains; securing the site. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to when you could take a drive to the local University, hospital, or doctor’s office and get a confirmation a lot faster and without all the fuss. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/25 "2008-04-29T13:37:49Z")
What do you suppose is the _proper_ procedure for something like this though? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/26 "2008-04-29T13:58:49Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] What do you suppose is the _proper_ procedure for something like this though? [/QUOTE] Give it back to Fido and swear us all to secrecy. That’s what they always do in coming-of-age movies anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/27 "2008-04-29T15:49:12Z")
Until the OP provides an update, she will have a leg up on us. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/28 "2008-04-29T16:13:38Z")
[QUOTE=Duckster] Until the OP provides an update, she will have a leg up on us. [/QUOTE] Well, we really only have the bare bones of the story. Perhaps she can flesh it out a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/29 "2008-04-29T16:16:10Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Well, we really only have the bare bones of the story. Perhaps she can flesh it out a bit. [/QUOTE] Meh. No point, really; this thread’s got no legs. ---
**Author:** ![Jonno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f19dbf/32.png) [@Jonno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonno)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/30 "2008-04-29T17:33:53Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] What do you suppose is the _proper_ procedure for something like this though? [/QUOTE] Contact the local city or county coroner office. They’ll have someone on staff who can make the species determination. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/31 "2008-04-29T23:24:23Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Meh. No point, really; this thread’s got no legs. [/QUOTE] I don’t know. If it turns out it is human, and they can trace her to the site of the “crime”, she could be boned. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/32 "2008-04-30T08:54:32Z")
**Mangetout,** good point. I’ll have to rethink my response. OK, here’s my thinking now: a stray fragment of bone isn’t that much. Barring some other reason to think that something is afoot (how many puns can fit in here?), the probability that it’s something mundane is high enough that my first reaction would be that it’s not worth hassling cops who have plenty to do as it is. I am willing to concede that I’m still off-base. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/33 "2008-04-30T09:06:54Z")
Yeah, I mean, I guess if there’s substantial doubt as to whether the thing is a piece of a human, then it seems fair to resolve that doubt before proceeding. My biggest concern - as the finder of such a thing - would be the questions and suspicion that might turn towards me if it _did_ turn out to be human, recent, and otherwise unexplained, and I had been less than rigorous in my handling of it. ---
**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/34 "2008-04-30T22:40:36Z")
OP here. I’ll check with the Natural History museum and get back to you to-Marrow. Dig? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/35 "2008-05-01T03:02:40Z")
It’s been a ball and socket to me they did but these puns… we either need to rotator cuff the persons telling them. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/36 "2008-05-01T13:03:44Z")
Why does someone always have to carpal-ot about these pun threads? ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/37 "2008-05-01T13:18:20Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Why does someone always have to carpal-ot about these pun threads? [/QUOTE] It’s all just part of the patella Si ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/38 "2008-05-01T13:30:49Z")
Wow. See what you stirrup with a few bone puns? These are about as subtle as a hammer on an anvil. When are the mods going to get a little more sternum on us in GQ, I wonder? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/39 "2008-05-01T18:59:11Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Wow. See what you stirrup with a few bone puns? These are about as subtle as a hammer on an anvil. When are the mods going to get a little more sternum on us in GQ, I wonder? [/QUOTE] Why do you want tibia wet blanket? ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181/40 "2008-05-01T19:15:21Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] I swear, the lengths some people will go to to use the car pool lane. [/QUOTE] I once had to drive a dead person from Oakland to the S.F. Airport. Yes, I took the carpool lane on the Bay Bridge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/found-a-bone/447181.md?page=1)