Tiny Bone Could Unlock Mystery of Amelia Earhart

Updated: 1 day 17 hours ago

Hugh Collins

(Dec 11) -- A tiny piece of bone could unlock the mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart, the pilot who vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean 73 years ago. 

The fragment, believed to be from a human finger, was found on Nikumaroro, an uninhabited island in the southwest Pacific, Discovery News reported. 

Researchers investigating Earhart's disappearance found the fragment of bone in June 2009 along with pieces of a pocketknife, prewar American bottles and makeup from a woman's compact. 

Courtesy of TIGHAR

Researchers probing Amelia Earhart's disappearance found this tiny bone fragment, believed to be from a human finger, on a remote island in the Pacific.

At first they thought the bone was from a turtle. Further investigation showed it could very well be human. 

"After 22 years of rigorous research and 10 grueling expeditions, we can say that all of the evidence we have found on Nikumaroro is consistent with the hypothesis that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, landed and eventually died there as castaways," Ric Gillespie, executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, told Discovery.

Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic solo and became an icon of the active woman. In 1937, she embarked on an attempt to fly around the globe.

After a stop in Lae, New Guinea, Earhart and Noonan took off July 2 bound for tiny Howland Island, a distance roughly the same as a trip across the continental United States.

Neither Earhart nor Noonan was ever seen again, despite a massive search and rescue mission.