TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KLIX) – New evidence recently discovered during an evaluation of the bones of an unknown castaway have scientists thinking they may belong to Amelia Earhart.

It has not been confirmed if the bones, found on the island of Nikumaroro in 1940,  are indeed Earhart’s, but scientists say there are strong similarities between the arm bones of the unknown castaway and those of the famous pilot.

The connection was dismissed by British authorities in 1998, but a peculiarity was recently revealed in preparing an updated evaluation of the bone measurements: the humerus and radius, or upper and lower arm bones, were found to contain the same measurements as those belonging to Earhart.

Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart with her navigator, Capt. Fred Noonan, in the hangar June 11, 1937 at Parnamerim airfield, Natal, Brazil. (Getty Images)
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Earhart, born in 1897 in Atchison, Kan., went missing on July 2, 1937 somewhere in the Pacific while she and navigator Frederick Noonan were attempting an around-the-world flight. It is believed by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery that they landed at Nikumaroro, where they sent several radio transmissions asking for help and that Earhart died as a castaway.

Women born in the late 19th century “had an average radius to humerus ratio of 0.73,” reads information from the organization’s The Earhart Project. After continued study, it was “found that Earhart’s humerus to radius ratio was 0.76 – virtually identical to the castaway’s.”

The organization goes on to say that while the match does not prove the castaway was Amelia Earhart, the new data “tips the scales further in that direction.”

 

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