Bones may be Earhart

[mgc1961]

NORMAN, Okla. – The three bone fragments turned up on a deserted South Pacific island that lay along the course Amelia Earhart was following when she vanished. Nearby were several tantalizing artifacts: some old makeup, some glass bottles and shells that had been cut open.

Now scientists at the University of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the tiny bone chips in tests that could prove Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world.

"There's no guarantee," said Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, a group of aviation enthusiasts in Delaware that found the pieces of bone this year while on an expedition to Nikumaroro Island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii.

This is a good article about the search for Earhart you've got to read at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101217/ap_on_re_us/us_search_for_amelia

[Democracyinkind]

1. Well, Duh.

I've always thought of the Emilia Erhart story as one of those bogus mysteries; it seemed pretty clear to me that (edit) that the island story was the most believable of the survival tales.

Of course it would be great to definitely prove this once and for all.... But this must be one of the most obvious mysteries there ever was.

edited for clarity: Now it doesn't read like I endorse any of the survival-stories.

[Bucky]

3. The fact that she survived that plane crash, that she had her make up kit with her still...

Sorry, but they just didn't have that sort of technology in the past. It had to be alien visitors.

[stray cat]

5. you didn't think it possible they crashed in water?

[Democracyinkind]

7. Of course. Water is most likely. I meant of the several myths of survival, the island is the most...

..likely.

Should have made that clear.

[Timeprogresive]

2. Or turtle bones, according to the article. nt

[madmax]

4. Turtles

wearing make-up what next! ;)

[mgc1961]

6. Now, a musical interlude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKI4wEP-wJ4

[laconicsax]

8. 6 Famous Unsolved Mysteries (That Have Totally Been Solved)

http://www.cracked.com/article_18718_6-famous-unsolved-mysteries-that-have-totally-been-solved.html

Remarkably, we've pretty much had the Earhart mystery solved ever since partial remains were found on an island...http://news.discovery.com/history/amelia-earhart-resting-place.html">in 1940. That's right, 70 years ago. Only four years after she vanished.

To be fair, half of the bones were carried away by giant crabs, and the rest have since been lost because nobody thought it was important or even curious that a skeleton should turn up on an island just southeast of where Amelia freaking Earhart was going. Neither did it strike a chord that the remains turned out to be those of a white woman with Earhart's measurements, or that they were found alongside a pocket knife, a broken cosmetics jar, a piece of glass from an airplane windshield and the same exact type of navigational system Earhart had been using. It's inconclusive, dammit!