Bone

The yellowing government survey map of San Nicolas Island dated from 1879, but it was quite clear: There was a big black dot on the southwest coast and, next to it, the words "Indian Cave. " For more than 20 years, Navy archaeologist Steve Schwartz searched for that cave. It was believed to be home to the island's most famous inhabitant, a Native American woman who survived on the island for 18 years, abandoned and alone, and became the inspiration for "Island of the Blue Dolphins," one of the 20th century's most popular novels for young readers.

The Catalina Island Museum has opened a window into a dark period of life on the island with an exhibition devoted to a pseudoscientist who looted Native American graves for profit eight decades ago. "The Strange and Mysterious Case of Dr. Glidden," which opened over the weekend, examines the life and times of Ralph Glidden, a hucksterish entrepreneur who in the 1920s and '30s excavated bones and relics from Tongva Indian burial grounds for sale...

I'm sorry that Christopher Knight is tired of lead, bone, glass and the like as art materials ("This Critic Has a Bone to Pick," Nov. 6). It seems like just a few years ago that it was at least acceptable to put pencil to paper or paint to canvas, as long as it was done with honesty and passion. Now we are being told we have to throw away our clothing, pedestals and rust and look for new materials to please the jaded critic. While I too deplore cliche, do we really need to be given a list of forbidden materials?

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 21 -27, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES Bones The team tries to prevent a viral outbreak during an investigation into a journalist's murder in this new episode. 8 p.m. Fox 90210 Hoping to land a teenage surfer (Marie Avgeropoulos) as their first sponsored athlete, Liam and Navid (Matt Lanter, Michael Steger)

Tyrannosaurs may have stalked far more of the globe than previously thought. Scientists for the first time have found evidence of an ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex in the Southern Hemisphere, a discovery that could shed light on tyrannosaurs' evolutionary lineage, which many scientists had thought was restricted to the Northern Hemisphere after the continents began to separate. Tyrannosaurs had been documented only in Asia, Europe and North America, but a hip bone discovered in Australia could have come only from a tyrannosaur, researchers have concluded.

In a small, dark room in this city of narrow alleys and workshops the size of shoeboxes, five men in their 70s fashion combs out of water buffalo horn with hand saws for $2 a day. "It's very hard work," said Abdul Bashir, 70. "But I've got to eat. " Members of this predominantly Muslim community of 50,000 have hacked, chipped, cut, molded and polished animal bones and horns into baubles or beads for generations. But the ornaments worn on the supple wrists and suntanned necks of far-off fashionistas carry a high price for these craftsmen, who must live with airborne clouds of bone dust that sticks to their eyes, hair and lungs.

What's all the fuss about Guns N' Roses? In the '60s, they would have been a third-billed, warm-up act at the Fillmore. Really. DON FLEETWOOD Duarte

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) , shot in the head in a Tucson parking lot in January, will undergo surgery Wednesday to replace the segment of her skull that was removed by surgeons at University Medical Center in Tucson. Surgeons there cut out a large segment of the skull to allow room for swelling of the brain, a common aftermath of trauma to the head. The bone was frozen to keep it viable until it could be reattached to her skull. In the interim, Giffords has been wearing a protective helmet to prevent injuries to her brain from falls during her rehabilitation at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center in Houston.

My daughter and I wish to extend our thanks for telling your readers about our plea for bone marrow donors. It was a big help in catching the attention of the public as well as informing many of our friends who were not aware of our plight. So far, we have not found a matching donor. However, we will keep in touch and keep you abreast with the latest happening or the outcome. Again, our profound thanks and prayers for more power to your media. TERISITA R. HACUMAN Port Hueneme

A bone fragment recovered from the backyard of a home next door to suspected kidnappers Phillip and Nancy Garrido appears to be from a human, the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday. Sheriff's spokesman Jimmy Lee said an independent expert determined that the bone is "probably human," and investigators are sending it to the state DNA lab for further testing. Officials are hoping the state "can develop a DNA profile on the fragment," Lee wrote in an e-mail statement Tuesday afternoon.

Surgeons managed to save the arms of a man who walked into a West Covina Home Depot and sawed them to the bone, police said. The man, who West Covina police described as being in his 50s, was in critical condition Thursday at a hospital, said Cpl. Rudy Lopez. Detectives have spoken with the man's family but have not talked to him themselves because he lost a lot of blood and has not recovered enough to talk, Lopez said. West Covina police say the man calmly and quietly walked into Home Depot before 1 p.m. Wednesday and headed to the hardware section where the saws were.

Scientists have discovered some of the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found - a rare collection of delicate fossils that offer an unprecedented look into the remarkably speedy early development of these enormous animals. The bed of Lufengosaurus bones and smashed eggshell, described in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature , may also provide some insight into the growth of birds and other dinosaur relatives. “There's nothing like this that has been discovered before,” said Luis Chiappe, a dinosaur paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of L.A. County, who was not involved in the study.

Garrett Richards didn't care whether he pitched out of the rotation or bullpen; he just hoped the Angels would commit to one or the other so he wouldn't have to go back and forth like he did last season, transitions that can tax the arm as well as the psyche. Richards, the organization's top starting pitching prospect, opened this season in the bullpen and emerged as a primary setup man, giving up one earned run and three hits in 41/3 innings in his first four appearances. But when Jered Weaver was put on the disabled list Tuesday because of a broken bone in his left elbow, an injury that will sideline the Angels ace for four to six weeks, the right-handed Richards was moved to the rotation and tabbed to start Saturday against the Houston Astros.

SACRAMENTO -- It almost had to happen this way. The cowbells were long gone and Phil Jackson hadn't zinged the local folks up here in years, but the Lakers reached way back into their rivalry with the Sacramento Kings and rode away with a 103-98 victory Saturday. It might have been the last time they ever meet here, the Kings possibly ticketed for Seattle, and if so, the Lakers grabbed the final edge again. Kobe Bryant played almost all 48 minutes, sitting out only 23 seconds at the end of the third quarter.

SACRAMENTO - It's a statistic invented for hockey, where sticks, flying pucks and big guys on skates lead to a lot of injuries. But the Lakers would rival some hockey teams with their "man-games lost to injury" this season - 146 and counting after their 113-103 loss Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks. Athletic trainer Gary Vitti recently said this was the most injury-filled season he'd experienced in 29 years with the Lakers. That was before Metta World Peace went down Monday because of torn cartilage in his left knee, sidelining him at least six weeks.

MILWAUKEE -- Just what the Lakers needed, more injuries to their aging backcourt. Kobe Bryant was seen limping badly in the Lakers' locker room after yet another loss, bothered by a bone spur in his left foot. He will be evaluated by doctors in Sacramento when the Lakers arrive there Friday, a day before they play the Kings to complete a four-game trip. Bryant was icing the foot on the bench in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 113-103 loss Thursday to the Milwaukee Bucks. He re-entered the game with  6 minutes 47 seconds to play and finished with 30 points on six-for-17 shooting.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone A Novel Laini Taylor Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: 418 pp., $18.99, ages 15 and up It isn't only an indisputable truth that opposites attract. In young-adult fiction, it's almost de rigueur. So it is with the kickoff to a new series from National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, in which the most contrarian characters imaginable - an angel and a devil - fall in love. It's to Taylor's great credit that evil incarnate and its love match in "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" are such imaginative interpretations and that the worlds in which this romance unfolds are likewise so unique: Telling a tale this apocryphal requires serious outside-the-box plot work to pull off. Taylor manages her self-imposed challenge with aplomb.

CLEVELAND — All-Star forward Chris Bosh was flattened by an inadvertent elbow from Cleveland's Antawn Jamison in the first quarter and suffered a broken bone in his face Tuesday night as the Toronto Raptors, battling Chicago for the final postseason spot in the Eastern Conference, were beaten, 113-101, by the Cavaliers, who have won 11 straight at home. The Raptors, one game ahead of the Bulls for No. 8 in the East, said tests showed Bosh had suffered a "maxilla and nasal fracture to the right side of his face."

MILWAUKEE - The older, slower, stumbling Lakers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, so the outcome was practically predetermined. What were not expected were dual injuries to their aging backcourt, Steve Nash unable to finish the game and Kobe Bryant limping through the locker room after a 113-103 loss Thursday to the Milwaukee Bucks. Bryant was bothered by a bone spur in his left foot, Nash sidelined by what he called a hip spasm. BOX SCORE: Bucks 113, Lakers 103 Bryant will be evaluated by doctors in Sacramento when the Lakers arrive there Friday, a day before they play the Kings to complete a four-game trip.

Considering that early camels once roamed the area of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, it should come as little surprise that another ancestor of today's "ship of the desert" made its home in Canada's High Arctic. After all, camels originated in North America more than 45 million years ago and migrated to Eurasia over the Bearing land bridge, according to scientists. The droopy-faced beasts were no strangers to higher latitudes. But what has come as a surprise is the method Canadian and English scientists used to identify an assortment of small fossilized bone fragments on Ellesmere Island in the Nunavut territory.