Stories from a Skeleton

 

Dear AnatomyWizard,

We are a group of bones who belonged to a teenager who died hundreds of years ago.  We never expected to see the light of day again, but a recent excavation literally unearthed us, and now experts are speculating about the kid we once belonged to.  The really creepy thing is, these experts are mostly right!  They know that he was left-handed, that he did heavy manual labor, that he had scoliosis, and that he once had a broken right arm that didn’t heal perfectly. They even know that he hadn’t quite reached adulthood.

How can they know so much about our former owner without ever meeting him or reading about him?

Sincerely,

Old Bones from a Young Man

 

Dear Old Bones from a Young Man,

Experts are able to tell a lot about a person just by looking at their bones. It is quite fascinating. Putting stress on your bones or if you EXERT your body when you jump, run, or lift a weight, sends a signal to your body that your bones need to be made stronger. New cells are then added to strengthen your bones. Experts probably saw that the bones in the left arm and hand were slightly larger than the right so that determined your owner was left-handed. Since he did heavy manual labor, a lot of his bones were probably large and strong. Again this is due to the fact that when you use your bones more, they signal your body to strengthen your bones. I am sure they knew your owner had scoliosis because it is an abnormal curve of the spine. Scoliosis can also cause your lower limbs to be of unequal length. If your owner broke his right arm and it didn’t heal perfectly could be due to multiple reasons. If he wasn’t put in a cast to immobilize his arm or if it was a displaced fracture and they didn’t line it back up, it could prevent it from healing correctly. When bones are fully grown, the hormones that helped with our growth spurt also aid in closing our epiphyseal plate. So if you didn’t reach adulthood, your epiphyseal plate was not closed. I hope I helped with your questions.

Sincerely, Right-Handed with Slightly Larger Bones on Right Side

 

Dear Old Bones from a Young Man,

First, don’t over EXERT yourself, as your owner has done in previous years. Research experts’ story should not be a scary one, but more of an amazing experience to mentally revisit your life VICARIOUSLY through them. Certainly you understand the hows, but research helps us to understand beyond that dimension: why the how happens. Technology has advanced at a staggering rate, allowing moral DECADENCE in educating us to be a thing of the past. Let’s reflect for a moment. Research shows that teeth serve as a most reliable and valuable source of information when trying to determine a specific age group, and sometimes unfortunately, a personal identifier for those who have met with an untimely and unsuspecting demise Families need closure when catastrophic events occur such as 9/11. Research also provides us with a clear distinction of the age group, prior to adulthood based on whether or not the epiphyseal plate (growth plate), and has closed completely. As children grow, the shaft of their bones gets longer and the bones gradually replace the cartilage epiphyses. We know that scoliosis is none other than an abnormal curvature of the spine, taking on the shape of an ‘S’, in mild cases, and the shape of a ‘C’, in the more severe form of the disease. It is commonly understood that the dominant side of anyone’s body is larger, in diameter based on muscle. What we don’t see, is beyond the once flesh-covered surface. So, we able to identify his dominant hand based on his remains because the bones too, are often larger because they were the major driving force behind the manual labor. As for his broken arm, well it didn’t heal properly due to his socio-economic status, based on the spoken clue, “hundreds of years ago.” Modern medicine allows us to view things differently and far beyond what the naked eye is capable of visualizing. We do this by advances in technology that allow us to use state-of-the art x-rays, bone density scans, etc. that were not available , hundreds of years ago. So, while the concept may seem a bit frightening, it now allows for scientific advances that enable the medical community to provide advanced approaches to protection, prevention and recovery for those less fortunate, such as yourself never realizing your story would be revealed.

Every Notch Tells a Story

 

Dear Old Bones from a Young Man,

Sorry to hear that your human being has passed at such a young age. Glad to know that you and all the other bones have been able to see the light of day again. Well let’s begin to help you understand why it is possible for people to know all these things about the human being you were once attached to. Now I was reading up on this for you on in my anatomy book on page 193. Majority of the time bones are on a pretty accurate schedule from the time they form until death. The epiphyseal plates persist and provide for long bone growth all throughout childhood and the sex-hormone- medicated growth spurt at adolescence. Usually by the age of 25, most bones are completely ossified and skeletal growth will cease. In some children and adolescents bone formation exceeds resorption. Also genetics plays an important factor on how much a person’s bone density will change over a lifetime. As for people knowing the hand of your human was left is because there is probably more wear and tear around the tarsals (wrist) metacarpals(hand) and the phalanges (fingers) of the left hand than the right. As for the manual labor the people could probably tell that both metacarpals are equally in bad shape. There is a high possibly that your human being has EXERTED oneself when doing this manual labor. The people can also tell he had scoliosis because his spine would have been a sideways curvature of the spine that occurs during a growth spurt right around puberty. The right arm can be shown that it possibly didn’t heal correctly through x-rays and close examinations that is invisible to human eye on the outside looking in. The bones could have been displaced or a spiral injury. So it’s not creepy at all to know about your human being without knowing your human. Look at it as a positive thing because your human being is clearly still a well-known person through his bones. I hope I have helped you understand the questions you had and are proud of your human being for all that he has done and hope you bones get to continue to see the light.

Sincerely, Tough Bones

Dear Old Bones from a Young Man,

There is nothing about your situation that should make you feel uncomfortable or alarmed. The experts who unearthed your owner’s bones are archaeologists who study human history through their remains and other artifacts. The reason they can tell all those things about your former owner is because the damage done to his bones while he was alive is still evident after many years. The experts can tell that he was left-handed because between both hands, the left one was stronger and had more muscle attached to it than the right hand. They know he did heavy manual labor because there were probably injured or fractured bones throughout his body. These injuries confirm that overtime, an excessive amount of pressure was EXERTED onto some of his bones. The experts also know your owner had scoliosis because the bones on his spine had an abnormal curve that is most often seen in the thoracic region of the vertebrae. They also can tell that he once had a broken right arm that didn’t heal perfectly because the fracture can still be seen. The reason these experts know your owner didn’t quite reach adulthood is due to the fact that a child’s skull has more separation between bone plates that an adult skull. They could also determine the age group of your owner because the bones, joints, and teeth are different than that of a full grown adult. All this goes to show that the experts didn’t have to meet or read about your owner in order to know all these things. The bones,when properly examined and analyzed, give plenty more information and insight to a person’s life.

Sincerely, Dr. Know It All

 

Dear Old Bones from a Young Man,

I can help you understand why these experts know so much about your former owner. The reasons why they know that he was left-handed and that he did heavy manual labor are due to bones response to mechanical stress, which directly relates to Wolff’s law. Wolff’s law says that when bones EXERT themselves, their mass increases or reconstructs as a reaction to the stress put on them. When your owner used his dominant left hand and did heavy manual labor, his bones increased due to repetitive intense use. The experts could also assess that your owner had scoliosis, due to irregular curvature in his spine. Scoliosis is prevalent in adolescents and can be medically repaired with modern surgery or braces. Unfortunately, your owner did not have access to those useful medical procedures or tools. Your proprietor’s imperfectly healed right arm bone was noticed by the experts because it looked like it was not treated properly by immobilizing it or constricting its movement to allow it to heal correctly. The bone then remodeled itself in its then “new” undesirable location. The reason the experts knew your owner had not quite reached adulthood was due to the epiphyseal plates in his long bones. An epiphyseal plate is a hyaline cartilage disc that is in the area where diaphysis and epiphysis meet. If he would have reached adulthood, he would have a vestige of the epiphyseal plate, which is called the epiphyseal line. Welcome to the 21st century Old Bones from a Young Man. You will be of great use to modern science in helping us to understand the way of life for humans hundreds of years ago.

Thank you. Bio Buster