Bones project

Bones project

Studies in Forensic Science

                                                    Objective

The objective of this project was to see how much force will leave behind patterns of trauma to the bones. The bones will subject to blunt force impact, butchery, burial, carnivorous activity or burning. The steps will include picking an anatomical region, choosing a trauma, preparation and analysis.

                                Initial Observation and Procedure

The first step was to select an anatomical region of an animal. I choose to use the upper limbs of a pig. I bought a pig shoulder from Jamaica Rythms INC on 225th street in the Bronx, NY. The initial weight of the bone and meat was 7.53 pounds. In order to subject the bone to any type of trauma I had to remove around five pounds of meat. After removal of the majority of the meat on the bone it had around 1 1/2 inches of meat around it. I initially started to stab the bone repeatedly with a seven inches long ½ inches wide knife six times on the lateral side of the humerus. I used my dominated hand and increase my force after each stab. However, there seems to be no injury. So I decided to subject the bone to blunt force trauma with a two pound hammer with the face measuring 1 inches. The hammer was used to knock the humerus four times repeatedly with strong force on the medial side at several different locations. Then knock the ulna or radius once with weak force. I stop for one minute and place the bones on the lateral side, knock the humerus three times with strong force and the ulna and radius two times with moderate force repeatedly.

To remove the extra meat, flesh, gristle, or other soft tissue. The bones were placed in a pot with water and then left on the stove to boil at 165 degree Celsius for 6 hours. I scrubbed and picked off all the loose meat and gristle off the bones. Then leave the bones in water and detergent overnight. Next I removed the bones and place it in warm water with detergent and a few drops of bleach. This process was repeated every three hours for four cycles then left the bones to dry overnight.

Results and Discussion

Type of Blunt force trauma	Relative force (low, moderate, high)	Number of times	Observations
75 degree knock with a hammer	High	4	One 1 inch dent in the bone

Once the bones, dried I started to examine the bones. The majority of the head of the humerus was missing from butcher cuts. Half of the ulna and radius were also missing from butcher cuts. The missing pieces include the styloid process of ulna, styloid process of the radius and the ulna notch. Leaving behind parts like the olecranon, trochlear notch, and radial notch. Measurements were also taken for each bone. The ulna measure seven inches long and one inches wide. The radius was four inches long and ½ inches wide. The humerus was seven and a half inches long and three inches wide. There were little discoloration of the bones at the ends where the butcher cuts. The humerus was also detached from the ulna and the radius during boiling. There is also an epiphyseal plate on the humerus, ulna and the radius. This suggested that the pig was very likely to be young at the time of death.

 As to the trauma that I subject the bones to with the hammer. The blunt force attack with a hammer made a ½ inch long and ¼ inches wide dent close to the head of the humerus on the medial view.  This trauma seems to be from two knocks with the hammer because the trauma is not the same shape of the hammer face. There seem to be two half circles over lapping with each other. There also seems to be trauma from the knife cut because I observed three very small marks less than one millimeter on the lateral view of the humerus. Even though the radius and ulna are subject to the same trauma, there are no visible marks on them.

Overall, this experiment was not very successful. I should have used more force so that there would be more trauma. I also should have taken off more meat so I could successfully generate more trauma on the bones. Too much bleach was also used after the removal of soft tissue because once the bones dried it becomes very chalky and it was difficult to see if there were any trauma.

 Conclusion

I have concluded that the pig died at a young age. I was also able to achieve a further understanding of the relationship between force and trauma.