Amelia Earhart: Island bones 'likely' belonged to famed pilot
Bones discovered on a Pacific island in 1940 are "likely" to be those of famed pilot Amelia Earhart, according to a US peer reviewed science journal. Earhart, her plane, and her navigator vanished without a trace in 1937 over the Pacific Ocean. Many theories have sought to explain her disappearance.
But a new study published in Forensic Anthropology claims these bones prove she died as an island castaway. The report claims they are a 99% match, despite an earlier conclusion.
The study, titled Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones, was first published by the University of Florida and conducted by Professor Richard Jantz from the University of Tennessee. It disputes that the remains found on the eastern Pacific island of Nikumaroro - about 1,800 miles (2,900km) southwest of Hawaii - belonged to a man, as a researcher had determined in 1941.
Amelia Earhart and the Nikumaroro Bones (open, DOI: 10.5744/fa.2018.0009) (DX)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:26AM
Why has anybody put resources into this completely worthless pursuit of knowledge. It better not have been a government wasting taxpayer money on this shite.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:39AM
Why has anybody placed resources into this completely worthless pursuit of knowledge. It better not have been a government wasting taxpayer money on this shite.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:07AM (2 children)
Why has anybody placed resources into this completely worthless pursuit of knowledge. It better not have been a government wasting taxpayer money on this shite.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:44AM (1 child)
Come on, that's too easy. Be more subtle in your manipulations of human society. What you are doing is no fun, you are more asshole than not.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:04PM
I, pot, say that ye, kettle, thou art black!
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:37AM (5 children)
Not a nice way to go, stranded on an island for, likely, years.
Also, unlike many early explorers, it seems unlikely Amelia made stupid mistakes.
Luck does have something to do with it, sometimes.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:59AM (3 children)
There were probably some nice sunsets.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Sunday March 11 2018, @10:07AM (1 child)
And lovely sun rises.
And, quite likely, anyone in that position would eventually start to dread seeing another one.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 11 2018, @12:05PM
Everybody thinks she was a lesbian. Because of the prenup. She lands on a desert island, her copilot is a guy, they're both very sad, right? Wrong! She was bisexual. So she could have a nice time with anybody. And she had fun with many people. If she was sad, I think it wasn't because she was with a guy instead of a woman. I think it was because she missed the VARIETY! And I don't mean the magazine.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 11 2018, @07:26PM
There was probably a lot to like about the island...but being alone for a long time is unpleasant, and nobody has mentioned finding two sets of bones. Also, though I don't know the ecology, it's quite likely that there were nutritional problems. Many groups of islanders had problems that way. Crab is delicious, but it probably gets boring after awhile, and the birds were probably difficult to catch. I didn't read what the native vegetation was, just that there was a lot of it. So scurvy is a possibility. Etc.
People in the early 1900's were generally a lot better adapted to living in the wild that today's urban or suburbanites, so she may well have had less problems than one of us would, but that doesn't mean it was easy, or generally pleasant. The island is reported to have a shortage of fresh water, but it did have coconut palms. It would take a lot of coconuts to provide enough to drink, however, and that's not a low calorie diet. Also, opening a coconut isn't an easy job. In Hawaii when I was there it was usual to stick the ax end of a pickax into the ground, and then pound the coconut husk against the point of the pick to pry it off the nut. But what she would use for such a tool is unclear.
Nobody seems to have said how long the bearer of the bones lived after reaching the island. It doesn't seem unlikely that the person died of thirst before much time at all had passed. But it's also possible that she lived there for years. (Decades seems unlikely. There were repeated attempts at colonization, and we probably don't know of all of the attempts.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:35PM
Doubt it was years. They probably ran out of anything to eat within weeks or months at most.
There have been extensive investigations of that island, and once you exhaust the bird eggs you are going to starve unless you can fish, and the first infection you get will probably kill you. Rain water is the only fresh water you will find there.
The initial investigation suggesting the bones were male wasn't done by researchers, but rather a local doctor with no forensic skills.
She was a big boned lady, in excellent shape, and the doctor was use to slightly built (or overweight) south sea islander women.
The bones were subsequently lost in transit.
There have been other stories [seeker.com] about underwater plain wreckage found in 2013. In later years, aluminum fragments were located that seem to match a patch [seeker.com] on her plane. Others say no way. [forbes.com]
Still no traces of Fred.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:58AM (3 children)
Why has anybody placed resources into this completely worthless pursuit of knowledge. It better not have been a government wasting taxpayer money on this shit.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Pslytely Psycho on Sunday March 11 2018, @10:41AM (2 children)
Well, at least you finally learned how to spell SHIT, and it only took you four posts......have a cookie.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:06PM (1 child)
But no cookie for you [wiktionary.org], mate.
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Monday March 12 2018, @12:16AM
Yeah, I knew that, I just figured since he used American English on the fourth try, that he failed fifth grade graffiti class.....
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Sunday March 11 2018, @10:39AM (3 children)
It's of little importance, but I was curious: when and how were the bones lost? My google-fu (ddg-fu?) is apparently not up to the task - I couldn't find anything.
Anyone have information about the loss of the bones?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday March 11 2018, @11:10AM (1 child)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:40PM
They were boxed for shipment, and that's all that is known.
Boxes of bones in an area that was awash in war remains were probably all dumped at sea somewhere.
I guess that's why they are considered lost.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @05:52PM
I can share that with you, no google-fu required.
It's a not very long (well, it never was) and sad tale of erectile dysfunction, poor personal hygeine and lack of use that lost my bone.
Sigh.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 11 2018, @12:25PM (11 children)
Since there were two people missing, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, couldn't it be that some of the bones were Amelia's, and some were her navigator's?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 11 2018, @01:56PM (10 children)
I really like how a "team of experts" can draw a conclusion that will stand unchallenged for decades, then get reversed by another "team of experts" working on evidence that's now decades older.
I've only been around for 5 decades, but "leading scientific opinion" seems more like fashion as time wears on: the cholesterol in eggs and fat in butter will kill you with heart disease, or maybe not... Hand sanitizer is a good thing, oh - wait... Saccharine is a healthy substitute for sugar, no but aspartame is, well... Lead is a perfectly safe performance enhancer in gasoline...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 11 2018, @02:12PM (3 children)
My thoughts are similar. Not only did the previous team dismiss the possibility that they were her bones - but this team is less than 100% certain.
The statement is only useful for keeping possibilities open. There is nothing conclusive in the study. To paraphrase them, "We think the bones are nearly the correct measurement to have been Amelia."
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday March 11 2018, @02:40PM
Well, can we bring in some anthropological-demographic expertise that can throw another layer on the analysis - I mean, if this group says that "from the pile of all old bones in the world, these are a 99% match for the Earhart expedition" how hard would it then be to say: the chances of a 99% match for Earhart showing up on this island at this time are.... left for the reader to draw their own conclusions? I would think they could do better than that: number of human travelers in the region, their demographic makeup, odds for confusing sets of bones being found, etc.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday March 11 2018, @04:08PM
If I said that you should host your online services with me because my servers look very similar to servers with 99.999 uptime, you should back slowly away until it's safe to turn and run.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:32PM
Science is *never* conclusive. Scientific theories must be falsifiable, but they are never conclusively verified. Rather, as more observations/evidence are gathered, a theory is either falsified (and must be thrown out or modified) or we discover that the theory more closely *approximates* the universe.
Which is why (presumably based on actual data) scientists *always* use percentages to describe accuracy. Which is why I'm disappointed that the journal article is unavailable, as I'd like to better understand the methods of analysis to better understand how these folks arrived at their findings.
E.g., the *fact* of gravity should not be confused with the *theory* of gravity. The latter predicts the effects of the former with great precision, but they are not the same thing.
All of science works this way, including forensic anthropology.
Why is it that so many adults seem unfamiliar with the scientific method? It's a little disheartening.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:50PM (1 child)
Read more carefully. Exactly ONE guy with medical training examined these bones, and guessed they were male.
The Doctor: https://tighar.org/wiki/David_Winn_Hoodless,_MD [tighar.org] A not too well thought of director of a Fiji medical school.
(Above link suggests bones were lost upon this doctor turning over his retirement).
More about the actual bones: https://tighar.org/wiki/Bones_found_on_Nikumaroro [tighar.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday March 12 2018, @02:38AM
And all speculation until someone manages a DNA match that's sufficiently convincing. So far that's apparently been a Fail.
https://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/59_DNAResearch/59_DNAResearch.htm [tighar.org]
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 11 2018, @07:35PM
Another has said the the reports that the bones were those of a man was made by a doctor with no forensic experience. That's not a team. Was he part of a team? (I haven't even seen someone claiming that it was a complete skeleton...so maybe he just had some arm bones.)
To me it sounds as if this whole thing is conjecture on everybody's part, both the original claimants and the recent revisionists.
So. From all that's been revealed, they *could* have been her bones. Or not. And the evidence is lost. And no conclusion is supportable.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:29PM
You do realize that instruments improve over time, and not all experts are equal to the task.
Additionally there are other pitfalls to be weary of that distort actual science - you even cite one of those examples. The use of lead being safe wasn't scientific at all but the distortion of it by industry that wanted to keep using their cheap resources rather than try to develop a real safe alternative that could end up being costly. They had an "expert" paid off to keep saying, with a straight face, that there was no evidence to suggest lead was harmful while subverting any evidence that did exist. They would pay for studies to be done to prove it was safe, and when those studies came back proving it was dangerous, they tried to bury it by paying off the researchers. The only way the truth eventually got out is because they failed to shut up one of those studies, and the research in charge of it that they were trying to bankrupt finally managed to get the results before the necessary regulatory bodies of the US government.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @08:30PM
The field of forensics in general has advanced a lot since then. Also, the doctor wasn't specifically an expert in this area, so even by the standards of the day it was probably not the best work.
But, keep in mind that the bones were lost shortly thereafter and as a result, there isn't any way of conducting further research other than by using the previous doctors' notes about the lengths and relative size of various bones. Even with modern methods it can be a challenge to tell the difference between a male and female skeleton with certainty.
If we still had access to the bones, there'd be the possibility of a DNA test to prove it once and for all. But, her sister was alive until the late '90s, so getting a suitable sample wouldn't have been much of an issue.
I remember back in the '80s that the bones and the shoes were considered to be more or less proof that she had died there, but for various reasons, couldn't be completely conclusive. At this point, I doubt that anything more reliable is likely to show up. At least not until they find the remains of the plane.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 12 2018, @09:34AM
Lead has been known to be poisonous ever since the Romans used it to build water pipes. I'm pretty sure thay didn't need a performance enhancer in their gasoline...
More likely someone went "we have all this poisonous lead lying around. Can't we find some use for it so that we can sell it rather than pay to get rid of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @05:51PM (1 child)
Please read my new book. It's called "Who boned Amelia?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @05:56PM
Amazon says that this book is often purchased with the ever popular "Who's Amanda Tapping [wikipedia.org] Now?"
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Sunday March 11 2018, @06:19PM
I attempted to visit the link from TFS to the journal article [ufl.edu], but I was unable to access the article.
Rather I get a "Database connction failed" error.
This appears to be a problem on the University of Florida Press side, as I confirmed that various news outlets had the same URL for the article.
That's disappointing. Perhaps I'll check again in a day or so. But probably not.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 11 2018, @07:44PM
By collating all the available evidence and theories, we can infer that she was captured by the Japanese who traded her to aliens in return for the tech that spawned the Zero fighter. The aliens then dumped the bones left over from devouring her on several islands to obfuscate their involvement.
Mystery solved.
(Score: 1) by petecox on Sunday March 11 2018, @09:54PM
C'mon, nearly 3000km away?
Sloppy journalism not to even mention Nikumaroro is now territory of the nation of Kiribati.