I have been sent this image of the distal end of a femur by a
non-osteologist. It was found on the surface in a remote part of coastal
NW Australia.
http://www.box.com/shared/static/736pu8zic6khl935yc0d.jpg
The bone in question is on the left of the image.
It is obviously not the best preserved of bones.
The assumption was that it is human (my speciality).
Two things seriously worry me about that identification.
1) The narrowness of the intercondylar notch.
2) The antero-posterior dimension being too great in relation to the
transverse diameter.
For comparison, the sender included in the image the distal end of the
femur of what appears to be a grey kangaroo. It seems the eroded bone is
not to be identified as kangaroo - in terms of morphology and size. Note
the curved, anterior projection of the intercondylar notch.
What you can't see in the image is that the eroded bone is an epiphysis
that was never fused to its metaphysis. Given the changes in the shape
of the human femur during growth, this property makes objection 2 above
even more severe.
If not human, and given its size and geographical origin, then I suppose
we must consider juvenile cow, horse and camel (possibly a very large
pig?). I have some illustrations of these taxa, but the specimen is too
eroded for me to come up with anything conclusive.
Does anybody have any suggestions, or want to correct my tentative
conclusion that it is not human?
Richard Wright
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