We bought this house in 2017 and have slowly been chipping away at our back yard—it’s pretty large so we have big (expensive) plans, but all we’ve accomplished so far is grass lol On a few different occasions we’ve found bone fragments from various spots in the yard, but I always assumed it was from an animal or a family pet buried long ago. The dirt in my area is very sandy and it gets windy, so bones and trash from the previous owners gets unearthed and scattered by my border collie every so often. We’re ripping out some trees on the perimeter to make room for a casita and some fruit trees, but my husband is finding parts of bone buried around or beneath one of the trees and I’m not familiar enough with human anatomy to identify if it’s animal or human…I watch a lot of true crime and don’t know why there’d be bones buried under where a tree was planted…I just don’t want to call the cops if it’s a dog. Any advice? lol
Marciamallowfluff
99.99% of the time they are pets or wild animals, probably that % is low. If I am hiking or out in nature I will also pick up bones to identify what they are from. If you know any medical people or vets ask them. It is not worth the police’s time unless you find a human skull.
PS my husband, a radiologist says it is a vertebrae, bone from spine.
Atomic-pangolin
Do you have any other pictures? It looks like a vertebrae from a lower section of the spine but I’m not entirely sure… you’re right, it could be from a dog or cat but if it’s large then that kinda rules it out. You’re sure it’s actually a bone and not something from Halloween that someone left in your yard to mess with someone a while ago? Or if it’s really large, could be from some beast of burden. Measure it in mm and if it lines up within an acceptable range then you can start to say with some confidence whether it’s human or not. Or if you want to really freak someone out, keep it on your desk or mantle in your house and say it’s from the last person who asked questions, then raise your glass and say, “to the hunt”.
Appropriate_Top1737
Likely just a deer or some other wild/stray animal. Unless its identifieable as human I wouldn’t be concerned. Its 10000% more likely to be a wild animal than anything else.
Ifawumi
It’s just from an animal. Don’t panic. You can leave it or throw it away or whatever.
I just let them degrade to nature
Lumpy-Lifeguard4114
Make a wind chime.
wonderdok
Yes. I did the only thing I could, I posted it here.
Reliably informed that I found pigs bones so no need to do anything further.
nesche14
Throw it in the trash or let your dog play with it
8 Comments
We bought this house in 2017 and have slowly been chipping away at our back yard—it’s pretty large so we have big (expensive) plans, but all we’ve accomplished so far is grass lol On a few different occasions we’ve found bone fragments from various spots in the yard, but I always assumed it was from an animal or a family pet buried long ago. The dirt in my area is very sandy and it gets windy, so bones and trash from the previous owners gets unearthed and scattered by my border collie every so often. We’re ripping out some trees on the perimeter to make room for a casita and some fruit trees, but my husband is finding parts of bone buried around or beneath one of the trees and I’m not familiar enough with human anatomy to identify if it’s animal or human…I watch a lot of true crime and don’t know why there’d be bones buried under where a tree was planted…I just don’t want to call the cops if it’s a dog. Any advice? lol
99.99% of the time they are pets or wild animals, probably that % is low. If I am hiking or out in nature I will also pick up bones to identify what they are from. If you know any medical people or vets ask them. It is not worth the police’s time unless you find a human skull.
PS my husband, a radiologist says it is a vertebrae, bone from spine.
Do you have any other pictures? It looks like a vertebrae from a lower section of the spine but I’m not entirely sure… you’re right, it could be from a dog or cat but if it’s large then that kinda rules it out. You’re sure it’s actually a bone and not something from Halloween that someone left in your yard to mess with someone a while ago? Or if it’s really large, could be from some beast of burden. Measure it in mm and if it lines up within an acceptable range then you can start to say with some confidence whether it’s human or not.
Or if you want to really freak someone out, keep it on your desk or mantle in your house and say it’s from the last person who asked questions, then raise your glass and say, “to the hunt”.
Likely just a deer or some other wild/stray animal. Unless its identifieable as human I wouldn’t be concerned. Its 10000% more likely to be a wild animal than anything else.
It’s just from an animal. Don’t panic. You can leave it or throw it away or whatever.
I just let them degrade to nature
Make a wind chime.
Yes. I did the only thing I could, I posted it here.
Reliably informed that I found pigs bones so no need to do anything further.
Throw it in the trash or let your dog play with it