A Case with Bear Facts

Abstract

During the summer of 1985, human skeletal remains along with accompanying material culture and various debris were discovered beside a logging road in Northern California. An analysis of the human remains and debris, which ran the gamut from a badly damaged 1974 automobile to the feces of a large mammal, revealed that an adult male Caucasoid, who had at one time had skull surgery performed, was partially eaten by a large carnivore, probably a bear. Along with the unusual circumstances surrounding this case which make it interesting, the fact that the victim's identity was later established allowed an opportunity to gain insight into some of the techniques employed by forensic physical anthropologists to discern sex, race, age, stature, and individual features. A review of some techniques is offered.

Bones chewed by canids as evidence for human excarnation: a British case study

“…The most likely agents responsible for this were deemed to be either wolves or domestic dogs, although foxes were also considered. Scavenging by bears was considered less likely, due to the lack of large spiral fractures, generally inflicted by these animals (Murad 1997: 397;Murad & Boddy 1987: 1821. The three spiral fractures which were present, compared well with published examples of canid-inflicted breakage.…”

Age at death estimation from bone histology in Malaysian males

“…7 The mid-diaphyseal part of a long bone was used to determine age in many studies, 1,8 as this part of the bone tends to be more robust and last through exposure to weathering changes and predator or scavenger damage. 9,10 Cortical bones of fibula, humerus, and ulna were used to estimate age in the population. 1 The anterior midshaft of femur was also widely used to study age prediction histologically.…”

Crocodylus acutus (American crocodile) bite marks on a nest data logger

“…All observed pits were subround to fusiform in shape, indicative of conical, relatively homodont dentition. These tooth marks were therefore inconsistent with traces associated with the heterodont dentition of larger mammalian carnivores known from South Florida, including several species of Canis (Binford, 1981;Haynes, 1982;Haynes, 1983;Haglund, Reay & Swindler, 1988;Haglund, 1997), Ursus americanus (Haynes, 1982;Murad & Boddy, 1987;Murad, 1997;Saladié et al, 2011) Lynx rufus, and Puma concolor (Haynes, 1983;Labisky & Boulay, 1998;Domínguez-Rodrigo, 1999). In general, mammalian feeding behavior results in more morphologically complex scores and pits, caused by multicusped molars, and more concentrated damage on the ends of elongate structures, caused by gnawing behavior.…”