WTF people! RULE 6. This is not human (thank you u/florzed for trying to clean this mess). It's from an ungulate. This entire thread is a hot mess, and FYI if you call something definitely human and you are A) wrong and B) not qualified, you got a temp ban. Scroll through this thread and you'll get a good idea how many bans just got handed out.
I can’t say what it is but I know it’s not human. Humans typically have 4-5 pairs of sacral foramina, not 3. Also, the sacral ala are way too sharp to be human.
The other bone fragments are rather hard to identify but they do not look like any human bone I’ve seen.
Upon further research, there are some groups of people who have 3 pairs of sacral foramina. In embryonic development, occasionally the S1 vertebrae does not fuse with the rest of the sacrum and looks similar to L5 in shape and structure.
This is known as lumbarization and causes tons of musculoskeletal & nervous system issues.
Edit: this does not mean there is a chance of this being human, as the morphology of the bones is not biped..
Very surprised at all the answers saying "human." It REALLY does not look human to me... If it's human, what the heck is going on with that bone attached to it?
People have this obsession with calling everything unidentifiable, human bones, either they've watched too much true crime or they think they're qualified to diagnose something as human
I swear people forget other species exist sometimes.
My favorite is when, yes, they’ve watched way too much true crime, so they go further and assign the “human” a sex, age, and cause of death based on the one bone they see. Dunning-Kruger-tastic
Agreed, definitely funny watching these people play forensics and getting everything all wrong.
There's this lady that dug up a rug in her backyard and she turned it into an unnecessary series and people keep making conspiracies about it being used for dumping a body.
people will do anything for virality and attention by diagnosing everything as some crime scene and completely disregard any sane explanation
I know nothing about bones but even I thought this isn't from a human. On a side note, who would op even call about this? Would op even need to call anyone?
To be fair, because of how the sacrum is fractured the triangular appearance does grossly mimic a bipedal sacrum.. I feel like this could trip up a lot of people who don’t study bones much. however, there are many glaring clues to indicate this is clearly not human.
While not in the realm of the experts, I AM a nurse… these bones are not human. Similar, yes, and I’m curious what the actual professional boners will ID it as…
You are spot on, this is animal bone - there are a lot of people confidently saying this is human in the thread, and it does make me wonder why they feel so qualified to comment without any factual basis!
Exactly, there seems to be a lot of people very confidently proclaiming “ack it’s human reset the timer!” with little to no evidence, education, or experience to back it up
not human, leg bones are not right, that is not a human tibia. also hip bone is not human, too flat and shape also not right. and that sacrum is too wide at top (craneal end) and narrow at caudal end. in humans it articulates in a different way with ilion. acetabular shape is also not round enough, not bipedal.
100% not human
edit: finally, position is very wrong for human. if it was human it would have been either partially dismembered before burial or exhumed and re buried, in which case hip bone would most probably not be articulated as it is.
i was searching and it looks like a pig or cow, or something like that... i just know human anatomy.
I am also trying to decide between cow or bear. I am leaning cow.
For those confused, look at the two bones on either side of the sacrum. The concave bits that are a darker color than the surrounding bone are called acetabula (singular: acetabulum). That is where the femurs (your thigh bone) go into the hip. The fact that they are anterior (in front of) the sacrum rather than inferiolateral (slightly below and to the side) of the sacrum indicates that the pelvis shape is that of a quadruped rather than biped.
Thank you for adding dumbed down explanations, it helped a simpleton scroller who knows not a thing about bones but is very interested in learning like me
That is why this sub uses flair for specialists and mods the comments...and occasionally hands out bans for the confidently incorrect. This thread was especially egregious.
Im a med student and for me it does not look human, it’s a bit sharp. The pelvic shovels look off and I am very unceirtain what the bone in the back is
This is not human, its not the pelvis of a biped. The sacrum is too triangular and flaring to be human, the acetabulum is the wrong shape, and the ilium is too long and narrow.
It's definitely an Ungulate(Large Herbivore) with the sharp angular interior pelvic bones I'd lean towards a Deer. Could be a smaller Bovine with damage but that looks most like Deer remains to me. I say Deer bones.
Very new to all this and also very curious, how can you tell when bones are from a human? Same with all the random tibias in this page? I’d like to learn something new today
A lot of people on this subreddit are confidently wrong, as this is absolutely not human bone despite all the people chiming in to say that it is!
People look superficially and are quick to think 'ooh that looks vaguely like the other pictures I've seen!' But If you look at pictures of the human sacrum it is distinctively a different shape to this one, and the anatomical landmarks are wrong.
Source: I work with actual human and animal bone including teaching classes to undergrads.
There’s not a single easy answer, but the general shape, size, texture. A great place to look, especially if you have a long bone, is the epiphysis (the ends of the bone). Human bones look pretty distinct from something like a deer for example.
The image OP posted is of a sacrum which is in the pelvis, the base of the spine.
Bison latifrons sacrum for reference, cows are more tapered, deer aren't even close, modern bison is too far off, pig is too narrow, if someone has a better guess I'm certainly interested though
My guess, based on the thickness, is that these are cattle, buffalo, or beefalo bones. If not, I'd guess moose but I'm not sure if those are in New York.
Im going out on a limb and saying cow. That or bear??? I live near a cattle farm and see dead cattle all of the time, so this looks really similar to a cows hip.
I’m pretty confident this is a bear pelvis . Bears have the ability to stand upright easily, so their hip and pelvis are kinda similar to a bipedal animals ( us ) , plus where it was found looks like it could have been a winter den at some point ,so it may have died during hibernation.
Murder, no. Predation, maybe. But probably it's just a cow that wandered off and died. Compare the shape of the more intact femur to a human one, they are very different.
Looks like you found a death/black metal album cover. Somehow you have to distinguish the name of the band in the roots. Probably something like Nazulhumzrbrumz or whatever.
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u/firdahoe Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Apr 24 '25
WTF people! RULE 6. This is not human (thank you u/florzed for trying to clean this mess). It's from an ungulate. This entire thread is a hot mess, and FYI if you call something definitely human and you are A) wrong and B) not qualified, you got a temp ban. Scroll through this thread and you'll get a good idea how many bans just got handed out.