Skeletons in the closet?

Did you know that at James Cook University, we receive many calls each year from both the Queensland Police

Service and families of retired or deceased medical professionals about skeletal remains found within our region?

But these aren’t usually the dug up kind. These are the kind that are literally skeletons in people’s closets.

Long story short, in days of old, medical doctors could purchase a skeleton (or half a skeleton) to help them with their anatomy training.

Many of these came from India’s Calcutta Bone Trade.

A legal and multimilliondollar enterprise throughout the 1970s, the export of human remains was banned in 1986, following rumours that bone traders were murdering people to sell their bones.

With the advent of plastic full-body skeletons, the bone trade has diminished significantly.

These plastic bones and skeletons, however, have nothing on the hands-on research and teaching that’s possible with real human skeletons, which vary vastly between individuals.

Plastic skeletons are moulded exactly the same every single time, whereas real human skeletons display considerable anatomical variation.

JCU currently has a couple of dozen half and full skeletons, which help students and researchers recognise anatomical variances between individuals.

These days, on the passing away of many medical professionals that had legitimately purchased full or half skeletons, shocked relatives often find these skeletons in the closet.

The use of human bodies and body parts for teaching and research is strictly governed by legislation, in particular the Transplantation and Anatomy Act (1979).

JCU accepts these donated skeletons and uses them to teach future doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech pathologists, biomedical scientists, medical laboratory scientists, sports and exercise scientists, pharmacists, psychologists and anthropologists.

These valuable and irreplaceable resources are distributed between our Townsville Bebegu Yumba and our Cairns Nguma-bada Anatomy and Pathology laboratories.

If you happen to find a (real) skeleton in your closet, you can contact us on (07) 4781 5022 to discuss donation.