Skeleton

It was the world's largest known land carnivore - 47 feet long, 12 to 18 feet tall and weighing seven to eight tons. The "Giganotosaurus carolinii," or at least a replica of its skeleton, is coming to Philadelphia. The replica is being mounted by Barry and April James of Sunbury, Pa., a vertebrate paleontologist and an anthropologist, respectively, and will go on display at the Academy of Natural Sciences starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.

All that remains of a child are the remains of a skeleton. A head. The ribs. A thigh. No arms. No feet. No flesh. No hair. And no clothes. Except for tattered remains of a childhood: a white T-shirt or sweatshirt proclaiming "Batman Forever. " The skeleton was found by a fisherman Monday morning on the rocky banks of a canal in Delaware. Its identity is still unknown. But in East Mount Airy, the skeleton's discovery has renewed fears that something awful has happened to two little boys who have been missing since Dec. 28. One of the boys, 3-year-old Prince Randall Cunningham Upshaw, was wearing a Batman outfit the last time his family saw him, said his grandfather.

Police yesterday identified a skeleton discovered Saturday as that of a 20- year-old Philadelphian who disappeared four years ago after a quarrel with an unidentified man. Police identified the remains as those of Raymond Croce, whose address was in the 5700 block of Reach Street in the Crescentville section of the city at the time he was reported missing. Investigators from the Medical Examiner's office found the skeleton in a brushy area along railroad tracks near the 5500 block of Bingham Street in Crescentville.

The skeleton offered few clues. Bones, partially clothed, gold earrings and a 16-inch strand of faux pearls. Investigators do not know how or when the woman met her death. Or even who she was. All they have to go on is the skeleton found in some brush at the edge of a cornfield in Deptford Township, Gloucester County. Two hunters made the grisly discovery on Monday as they trekked through the field about a mile from Caulfield Avenue. Police combed the area yesterday searching for clues.

The skeleton found this week in an abandoned North Philadelphia rowhouse was that of a male aged 25 to 40, according to preliminary autopsy results. A spokesman for doctors in the Philadelphia medical examiner's office said yesterday that the individual had been dead for at least two years but that no cause of death was readily apparent. Final results of the autopsy will not be available for at least two more days, he said. The spokesman said an attempt would be made to identify the individual through dental records.

Last year, while a Penn team of archaeologists was working in Morocco, members uncovered a treasure beyond anything they'd imagined - a skeleton of a child from 108,000 years ago. They don't know what killed him at about age 8, but his remains are believed to be one of the most complete ever found of this period. The skeleton promises to open a window into a pivotal time in human evolution when Neanderthals still ruled Europe, and Africans were inventing art and symbolic thought.

A demolition crew made a ghastly discovery Saturday morning when they found skeletonized remains inside the basement of a vacant Point Breeze rowhome, police said. Around 8:20 a.m., construction workers were tearing down a home on the 2300 block of Federal Street when they spotted a skull under some debris in the basement, police said. A worker called 911 and police and medical examiner's officials discovered a clothed skeleton under the trash. "At this point, there is no indication of foul play," said Commander of South Detectives, Capt.

The skeletal remains found Friday night by hunters near the Parx Casino in Bensalem Township are those of a man of average height, possibly white, who was wearing a blue T-shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers, police said today. Sgt. Andrew Aninsman, a Bensalem police spokesman, said investigators were researching missing persons cases as well as DNA and dental records in an effort to identify the remains. The cause of death remains unknown, he said. Contact the Inquirer Online News Desk at online@phillynews.

She waited until her boyfriend had gone out. Then she leaned out the rear bedroom window of their apartment and gingerly lifted a mattress that had been placed on the roof below. Under the mattress was a skeleton. Despite her horror, she continued to raise the mattress until she could see it all. As she stared, she remembered her boyfriend's words. He had told her, "I offed my girlfriend. " He had challenged her to look on the roof, she said. But after she had had her look, she asked herself, "What did I go do that for . . . ?

She waited until her boyfriend had gone out. Then she leaned out the rear bedroom window of their apartment and gingerly lifted a mattress that had been placed on the roof below. Under the mattress was a skeleton. Despite her horror, she continued to raise the mattress until she could see it all. As she stared, she remembered her boyfriend's words. He had told her, "I offed my girlfriend. " He had challenged her to look on the roof, she said. But after she had had her look, she asked herself, "What did I go do that for?

A demolition crew made a ghastly discovery Saturday morning when they found skeletonized remains inside the basement of a vacant Point Breeze rowhome, police said. Around 8:20 a.m., construction workers were tearing down a home on the 2300 block of Federal Street when they spotted a skull under some debris in the basement, police said. A worker called 911 and police and medical examiner's officials discovered a clothed skeleton under the trash. "At this point, there is no indication of foul play," said Commander of South Detectives, Capt.

Katie Uhlaender has given the United States its second gold medal at the skeleton world championships in Lake Placid, N.Y., since the women's competition debuted in 2000. Uhlaender, of Breckenridge, Colo., finished the four heats over two days at Mount Van Hoevenberg in 3 minutes, 42.33 seconds. She beat Mellisa Hollingsworth of Canada by 0.17 seconds on Friday. Uhlaender also won silver at worlds in 2008 in Altenberg, Germany, and bronze the previous year in St. Moritz, Switzerland, when teammate Noelle Pikus-Pace won. Elizabeth Yarnold of Britain took the bronze, 0.36 behind and just ahead of teammate Shelley Rudman , the World Cup champion.

Harry Eastlack, whose tissue turned to bone, lives again. So, too, do Chang and Eng Bunker, the Siamese twins who fathered 21 children between them. And Chenallier, a 19th-century French basket-maker whose tumor was so large it resembled a giant pillow - all have been returned to life, in a manner of speaking, in "Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum). " This cinematic celebration of the "cruel beauty" of the vast collection of objects housed at the Mütter had its world premiere Thursday evening, as several hundred guests were treated to Stephen and Timothy Quay's unique take on the museum's trove of medical oddities and marvelous, albeit morbid, artifacts.

Last year, while a Penn team of archaeologists was working in Morocco, members uncovered a treasure beyond anything they'd imagined - a skeleton of a child from 108,000 years ago. They don't know what killed him at about age 8, but his remains are believed to be one of the most complete ever found of this period. The skeleton promises to open a window into a pivotal time in human evolution when Neanderthals still ruled Europe, and Africans were inventing art and symbolic thought.

HARRISBURG - Schoolchildren missed out on seeing the famous mastodon skeleton. News events and high-level meetings were scrapped or relocated, and some unlucky state workers were forced to use outdoor toilets. All because of a water-main rupture several hundred yards behind the Capitol. The break forced a rare shutdown of the state government complex, sending thousands of workers home, disrupting business, and disappointing hundreds of children on their spring trip to the state museum.

No foul play is suspected in the case of human remains found Monday by a teacher in Norristown Farm Park, a Montgomery County prosecutor said Wednesday. First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said that the results of an autopsy were pending but that the remains were believed to be those of a local man. "It's going to take some time, simply," Steele said. He declined to release any more information. The remains were found by Matt Hartzell of Pottsgrove, who was looking for deer antlers.

The skeletal remains found Friday night by hunters near the Parx Casino in Bensalem Township are those of a man of average height, possibly white, who was wearing a blue T-shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers, police said today. Sgt. Andrew Aninsman, a Bensalem police spokesman, said investigators were researching missing persons cases as well as DNA and dental records in an effort to identify the remains. The cause of death remains unknown, he said. Contact the Inquirer Online News Desk at online@phillynews.

WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA ? For hour after hour late Friday night, the Whistler Blackcomb gondola ferried thousands of delighted Canadians down from the Blackcomb Mountain skeleton course to the crowded, festive streets of Whistler Village. Elated by Jon Montgomery's dramatic gold-medal victory in men's skeleton, most remained in the tiny, tony mountain town, where they listened to music, drank beer, and cheerfully chest-bumped one another. And then someone noticed that the gondola had just disgorged Montgomery himself.

WHISTLER, British Columbia - Eric Bernotas lifted himself from his tiny sled after last night's final, harrowing, headfirst run in the men's skeleton, yanked off his helmet, looked toward the dark mountain sky and sighed. For the two-time Olympian from Avondale, it must have been a combination of relief and frustration. The 38-year-old never found himself or his groove on this lightning-quick Whistler Sliding Center course, the same one where a Georgian luger had been killed a week earlier.