Researcher seeks to identify educational skeletons

October 2, 2024

While opening a bag of vertebrae used for practicing the identification of the bones in the spine for her anatomy class, Emme Josko found real vertebrae mixed in with fake plaster vertebrae.

Finding real bones mixed in with plaster replicas inspired Josko to explore the topic further. She discovered two other skeletons in the science center that were in very poor condition.

"They had decades old scotch tape on them, hot glue, one of them had a bunch of paper towels that were just taped down onto its shoulder," Josko described. "One was missing an arm and its shoulder blades. Some were missing knees. They had fractures, holes in their bones, exposed points, and were missing a lot of stuff."

She asked if she could fix the three real skeletons, and faculty said yes. She received a National Science Foundation South Dakota Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) grant that helped fund the repairs and project.

"None of this would have been possible if I didn't have any funding," Josko said. "Without the boost in funds, I would not have been able to be here at all."

She's spent time finding and identifying missing bones and repairing damaged ones, referencing museum preservation for best practices.

"I found out there's not a lot of scientific materials out there that work as guides for fixing educational skeletons," Josko said.

For research projects involving the surveying of humans or the study of human remains, the researcher must get approval from an ethical review board, but there are no such requirements for educational skeletons.

"I've been trying to be especially mindful of the fact that these skeletons used to be people," she said. "I feel compelled to try to get more information about the skeletons and let them actually be used and have a purpose."

She hopes to find out what countries the skeletons are from and potentially some genetic traits and then create plaques for the skeletons that will share that information.

Josko's favorite discovery of the project so far has been the discovery of the missing shoulder blade and arm for the smallest, very fragile skeleton in the lab.

"I found its arm and figured out how to reattach it, and I was like, 'yes, this is a win,'" she said. "I just remember being super happy, especially when I tested it out afterward and could move it."

Over the summer, she presented her research efforts at the SD EPSCoR Conference. She enjoyed networking with others and getting advice, tips, and resources for her work.

"I loved the conference," Josko said. "I loved getting people interested in the skeletons. I had a bunch of people follow me on LinkedIn because they want updates on what we find."

She's continuing the work this fall, applying for a Student Research Initiative (SRI) grant to continue the project by attempting to extract DNA from the skeleton's teeth to help determine where they came from.

"In the last century, there were a lot of problems with illegal human trafficking of human remains," Josko explained. "We're trying to restore a lot of the dignity back in these skeletons."

Josko, a senior integrative biology major from Beresford, S.D., initially chose to attend DSU for its elementary education program. However, after taking a general biology class, she was inspired to switch her major, first to biology education, then to integrative biology.

She plans to earn her PhD in biology, become a professor, and excite others about science.

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