A Review of osteological remains submitted for forensic examination in south Australia over a 7-year period (2013–2019)

Bone finds and their medicolegal examination: a study from Hesse, Germany

“…The same is observed in Romania, as shown in a richly illustrated case report [51]. In Australia, the radius of a kangaroo shows great similarities to that of a human [49]. The most common animal bones found in Australia are vertebrae and long bones from sheep and cattle [49] and bones from sheep and kangaroos [31].…”

“…For international comparisons of certain parameters, the literature includes data from Switzerland [41], the USA [42][43][44][45][46][47], South Africa [36,48] and Australia [31,49].…”

“…In the Swiss study, the site of discovery was most frequently outdoors and in 37% of the cases in the mountains or forests [41]. In southern Australia [49], bones were most frequently found in developed land including building sites or residential areas (64.7%) and only in 14.7% in open fields, whereas in New South Wales [31], almost equal numbers were found in the city (48%) and in the bush (47%). In the collective from Gauteng, South Africa, the majority of cases were found in open fields, and one bone was taken from a "witch-doctor" [48].…”

“…In Hesse, Germany, 55.6% of all cases contained animal bones, in Switzerland 32.8% [41] and in Southern Australia 70% [49]. The numbers for investigations from the USA vary by region [50], ranging from 18.8% in California [43] to 23.6% in Tennessee [46] and 28% for FBI cases [42] to 50% in New York City [47].…”

“…The animal species of which the bones were most frequently sent for examination vary by region [49] and depend on three factors: the frequency of occurrence of an animal species locally, the resistance of the bones to environmental influences and the similarity to the human skeleton [50]. For North America, for example, a high similarity of skeletonized bear paws to the human hand skeleton has been described.…”