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Who Needs an Osteologist? (Installment 6)

Hey, kids!  It's time for another round of Who Needs an Osteologist?  Today's example comes from a photo in the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, showing the "African" woman found in Fairford, England, a week or so ago.  (NB: So far, I haven't seen any sort of official report of just how the forensic anthropologists determined she was "African" - hence the scare quotes - so I'm taking this report with a grain of salt.)

Now remember, to play along at home, all you have to do is identify in the comments section everything that is wrong with the layout of this skeleton...  And... Go!

(Image from the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

If you missed them previously, here are other installments of Who Needs an Osteologist?

Comments

Caroline VanSickle said…
Fun game!
Os coxae are upside down. Scapulae are upside down. Ulnae are upside down. Tibiae are facing posterior while femora are facing anterior. The photo is too grainy for me to comment on the radii. There also appears to be an extra right arm bone next to the humerus (grainy photo makes it difficult to identify, but that might be the other fibula??). Oh and I can't tell what the black thing is in the chest cavity. I'm really hoping it's not the sacrum.
Did I miss anything?
28 September, 2013 12:06
Kristina Killgrove said…
Pretty sure that extra arm bone on the right is the missing fibula, but it is indeed hard to tell. Definitely a sacrum in the middle of the chest cavity... maybe they thought it was the heart bone?!?
28 September, 2013 12:09
Caroline VanSickle said…
*facepalm* Definitely should have hired an osteologist.
28 September, 2013 12:27
Courtney said…
That looks like a really painful place to have a sacrum, and that is a really messed up foot.
28 September, 2013 13:19
Jeanni Floyd said…
Everything. Everything is wrong with this picture, and I haven't studied bones in almost three years.
28 September, 2013 13:36
Anonymous said…
Pretty sure that left tibia is a femur and the extra phalanges on the left foot is a bit odd along with the other comments i that cover everything
28 September, 2013 15:42
Kristina Killgrove said…
The tibiae are both tibiae. But they could be mis-sided. Hard to tell from the fuzzy photo.
28 September, 2013 15:45
Danielle Cook said…
fibula is medial instead of lateral, tibias are pointing posteriorly,
both ulna and radia are upside down
os cox are upside down
sacrum is up by the scapula
the other fibula is next to the humerus?
how many extra tarsals does this person on on their left foot?

lol awesome!!
28 September, 2013 16:31
Anonymous said…
Without looking at your answers, I think the hip bones are backwards or upside down, and they've stuck the tail bone in her lung.

The foot bones are all jumbled and I really cannot even with that right arm.

Apparently "Who Needs an Osteologist's Blog Readers?" would also do.
28 September, 2013 16:33
Anonymous said…
The British Museum needs an osteologist to reside and re-place the clavicles on a skeleton in the Roman Room; and a humerus was labelled as a radius in the Hunterian (a few yrs back; surely that's been fixed now). To be fair the humerus was in a pull-out drawer. Kristina, GREAT series.
Rose Drew
01 October, 2013 05:58
Jables said…
I see many people have commented on the insanity with the left foot. It looks like something similar is going on with the left hand(s?). Very strange.
24 January, 2014 21:37
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