Osteology is the study of bones, including human bones, and is used in fields such as medicine, physical anthropology, and archeology. Osteologists can determine information such as age, stature, occupation, and race from bones, and can also examine human remains to identify victims and determine the cause of death. The study of ancient human and animal remains can provide insight into their lives and cultures. Osteologists have access to bone libraries and are familiar with the variation seen in the skeleton.
Osteology is the study of bone. The study of bone, especially human bone, is a topic of interest in a number of scientific disciplines, including medicine, physical anthropology, and archeology. Osteologists study everything from the morphology of the bones of ancient organisms to the remains of murder victims. A number of colleges and universities offer osteology training from a variety of perspectives to interested students, and professionals active in the field may work in an assortment of different settings.
While bones may appear dumb to the average eye, to an osteologist, they are teeming with information. Studying a single bone can provide a great deal of information about the organism or person it came from; the bones carry markers that can be used to determine age, stature, occupation, and even racial background. If a complete skeleton is available, an osteologist can glean a surprising amount of information.
One area where osteology is frequently employed is the examination of human remains. Modern remains can be studied to see if the victim can be identified and to provide insight into the manner of death. For example, an osteologist may be called in to examine a skeleton and return the information that the skeleton belongs to a black waitress in her early twenties who fathered a child; markers in the bone can provide all of this information to the discerning eye. The osteologist may also be able to identify unusual features in the bone that could help with identification and look for clues as to the cause of death, such as a fracture of the hyoid bone indicating strangulation.
The field of osteology may also include the examination of ancient human remains. In this case, the interest is scientific, as there is no active homicide investigation involved. Studying the remains of ancient humans can provide insight into the lives they lived, with osetologists looking at things like the condition of their teeth at the time of death, the sign of occupational markers in the bone that could provide insight into a person’s status in life and studying indicators of race that could provide perspective on the racial composition of ancient cultures. Animal skeletons can be of equal interest, and osteologists specializing in human remains are also often familiar with animal remains because they need to learn to distinguish between bones of different species and may be familiar with animals that lived in close association with ancient humans. society.
Osteologists study many bones throughout their education and career. Many have access to osteology laboratories that include large bone libraries, which allow them to study bone at different rates of development, see physical demonstrations of bony abnormalities and hallmarks that might provide clues to identity, and examine bones of historical interest. Experienced osteologists can accurately identify a piece of bone, sometimes by touch alone, and are very familiar with the staggering amount of variation seen in the skeleton.
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