Bones

A human skull and bones were unearthed Wednesday by a crew digging a trench for telephone wires. The bones were found 7 feet under the sidewalk in the 3800 block of West Commonwealth Avenue and included a complete skull, femur bones and ribs, all from the same person, Deputy Coroner Cullen Ellingburgh said. Judy Suchey, an anthropology professor at Cal State Fullerton, is scheduled to examine the bones today to determine specifics, such as height, weight and sex.

Human bones were found in a cardboard box off a road in the Santa Clarita Valley early Friday, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies said. A passing motorist spotted the box off Pico Canyon Road about three miles west of the Golden State Freeway about 12:45 a.m., Deputy George Ducoulombier said. The Los Angeles County coroner's office will determine the cause of death and seek to identify the bones, Ducoulombier said.

Two hikers found human bones in a remote part of a mountain range, and authorities were preparing to test them to determine the person's identity, sheriff's officials said Thursday. Authorities believe a mountain lion scattered the bones and carried some of them to a rock plateau, where the hikers found them over the weekend, said Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Morshed.

Authorities have called in an anthropologist to help identify a set of human bones found Monday by hikers in Griffith Park. Los Angeles Police Detective Loren Zimmerman said the bones were discovered by boys hiking in an area above Fern Dell Drive. Ralph McKay, 14, and his brother Carlos, 11, found what their companion, Alex Eapen, 15, identified as a human jawbone. Zimmerman said Eapen believed it could be identified because some teeth were still intact.

As a truck loaded with the bones of their ancestors made its way from Massachusetts to New Mexico, more than 200 Pueblo Indians were walking 80 miles to be at the Pecos National Historic Park, near Santa Fe, when it arrives. The Indians were using the route their ancestors took 160 years ago. Harvard University handed over the remains this week.

Human bones were found Tuesday on the property of a nursery at 5423 Firestone Blvd., Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators said. The skeletal remains were discovered in a pit about 1:50 p.m., authorities said, and homicide detectives were sent to investigate. It was not known how old the remains were, or if they were those of a man or woman.

The discovery of bones heralded as a new, hobbit-like human species may turn out to have been the remains of a human suffering from a genetic illness, according to researchers. Robert D. Martin of the Field Museum in Chicago and coauthors wrote in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the fossil of Homo floresiensis appears to be a modern human with microencephaly, a disorder that results in a small brain and other defects.

Months of detailed work by a Riverside County deputy coroner resulted in a sort of tragic success Tuesday when scattered bones found in a remote canyon were identified as those of a 7-year-old San Diego girl missing for 15 months. Alan Kunzman insisted on literally sifting the dirt that finally led to the discovery of teeth that were key to identifying the victim.

Centuries-old sacred bone fragments and the reliquary box in which they were displayed have disappeared from a Greek Orthodox Church. The pebble-sized fragments date from the 3rd and 4th centuries. "These are very highly venerated," said the Rev. Philip Armstrong, priest of St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church. "The relics of saints are considered to be sources for healings, for answered prayers and for the blessing of premises. It is really a grave loss spiritually to us."