According to the Washington Post, a new study published by the academic journal Forensic Anthropology is now claiming that a set of bones originally believed to have been a man’s are in fact a woman’s. What’s more, the bones — which were initially discovered by a British expedition to the Pacific island of Nikumaroro in 1940 and apparently misidentified in 1941 — may have belonged to none other than Amelia Earhart, the female aviation pioneer who disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.
At least that’s the conclusion reached by University of Tennessee anthropology professor Richard L. Jantz, who authored the study. “There was suspicion at the time that the bones could be the remains of Amelia Earhart,” he says, noting that they were discovered along with “what appeared to be a woman’s shoe,” “a box made to hold a Brandis Navy Surveying Sextant that had been manufactured around 1918 and a bottle of Benedictine, an herbal liqueur.” Per the Post:
Jantz compared the lengths of the bones to Earhart’s measurements, using her height, weight, body build, limb lengths and proportions, based on photographs and information found on her pilot’s and driver’s licenses. His findings revealed that Earhart’s bones were “more similar to the Nikumaroro bones than 99 [percent] of individuals in a large reference sample.”
“In the case of the Nikumaroro bones, the only documented person to whom they may belong is Amelia Earhart,” Jantz wrote in the study.
Theories claiming Earhart may have died as a castaway somewhere in the Pacific have long persisted since her disappearance. Then again, other theories and wild claims about her allegedly not dying while trying to circumnavigate the globe have also persisted (and subsequently been shot down).
(Via Washington Post)