Zoology: Bones

Examples of healed, surgically repaired fractures of the radius, ulna and right innominate from adult human male (original specimens being from a North American medical school forensic osteology teaching collection). When long bones such as the radius and ulna are badly fractured, which might occur in motor vehicle accidents, such injuries might require the intervention of an orthopedic surgeon, as simple plaster or fiberglass casting of the affecting limb may be inadequate for bony healing. As such, living bone can be harvested from an uninjured site-in this case, from the anterior aspect of the iliac crest. The long bones and the innominate show significant signs of healing with irregular bony exostoses. These findings are of importance to forensic anthropologists or pathologists who are investigating a death, as they may be useful in the process of identifying a deceased body.