Abstract:
Histology is used to describe post-mortem bone alterations, trauma, pathology, age estimation and to
separate human and nonhuman bones. Many scholars are however not familiar with the intricate and
variable microstructure of bone and due to the complex nature of some classification systems, bone
histomorphology is often incorrectly described or identified. Little information is available on the
histomorphology of nonhuman bones found in southern Africa and therefore the aim of this study was
to describe the histomorphology of nonhuman species commonly found in southern Africa, namely,
impala and monkeys, along with cat, dog, cow, sheep, equid and pig. Human femora were included for
comparative purposes. The periosteal surface of femora was described and focused only on the
arrangements of vascular canals, primary osteons and secondary osteons. The results compared
favourably to other studies and also added a histomorphological description of impala femora which
consisted of primary vascular longitudinal bone tissue. A large degree of overlap and combinations of
bone tissue types was observed as well as evidence that allow animals from similar taxonomic orders to
be grouped together. Primary vascular bone was primarily observed in artiodactyls (cow, pig, sheep
and impala), while Haversian bone was recognised in carnivores (cat and dog), perissodactyla (horses
and donkeys) and primates. These differences can be used to exclude human from unknown bone
fragments and also serve to caution investigators when using animal models to infer human bone tissue
responses to thermal damage, ballistic trauma, etc., as bone tissue types different to that of human bone
may respond differently.
