When someone presents a bone (or series of bones) to a forensic anthropologist for identification, deciding whether or not the bone is human is one of the first steps in determining its importance in a medicolegal investigation. Almost every forensic anthropologist has been asked to drop everything and go to a scene that has been secured by law enforcement because someone believes that the skeleton in the bushes is human, only to discover that those remains are from a deer. The inconvenience and expense associated with an exercise such as this is one reason why human/nonhuman bone identification is one of the most popular subjects in seminars I present to law enforcement.
This book is intended to give law enforcement, medicolegal investigators, forensic anthropologists, and even the general public an atlas with photographs and other information necessary for bone identification. Admittedly, it is difficult to create a reference book such as this for such a large audience. Some professionals will be able to skim or skip certain sections of the book that are designed for the novice reader, while some readers will find it necessary to study the initial osteology section to learn the basic terminology used in bone identification.