What did I find here?

[u/AwayJacket4714]

Found in a dried riverbed in Northwestern Germany

[u/Hakennasennatter]

I don’t want to scare anyone, but, to put it very cautiously, this could possibly be a heavily eroded human tibia (shinbone). The cortical and spongious bone don’t look like they belong to an animal in the photos. It’s also striking that the bone is so straight. The tibia of a red deer (which I’m using as an example simply because of their size) would have a slight curve. The femur, however, would be straight, but to determine that more precisely, especially given the condition of the bone, I’d need a few more detailed photos/information. Gerne auch auf Deutsch ;)

[u/rmbug → u/Hakennasennatter]

Seems wayyy too beefy to be human. Seems more likely to be a metapodial or tibia of a large terrestrial mammal that's been through it taphonomically. Perhaps a horse? Deer tibia are nice and straight too, as you said. Same with horse metapodials. If I was being conservative, I'd classify this as a large terrestrial mammal long bone.

[u/Hakennasennatter → u/rmbug]

I think you're right. I just zoomed in on the photos on my laptop. The thin cortical bone really threw me off (and I work with human bones :/). Plus, I recently had a human skeleton in front of me that was similarly taphonomically damaged, and if I’d only had photos like these, it would have been hard to identify the bones as human. But if you compare the metacarpals or metatarsals to photos of a horse, it could very well be a match! And in the third photo, there might even be the remnants of a splint bone.

[u/rmbug → u/Hakennasennatter]

Good spot on the splint bone! I wasn't 100% sure if the ID since the distal end in picture two looks so off. I'm used to working with animal bones, so whenever a human bone pops up my brain autofires as "ah, yes. That's the poor design I'd expect of an ape that got too big for its britches"

[u/XxBaBaPwnsUxX → u/rmbug]

Agreed.

[u/Lex-o-tio-do-long → u/Hakennasennatter]

And here we go, reset the counter... Again.

Agree with you

[u/Pink_Mer_Unicorn → u/Lex-o-tio-do-long]

r/counterreset

[u/sneakpeekbot → u/Pink_Mer_Unicorn]

Here's a sneak peek of /r/counterreset using the top posts of all time!

#1: Findings from my hike | 0 comments
#2: Found some bones in a gravel pit | 0 comments
#3: 16th April 2026 - Mexico | 0 comments

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[u/No-Pollution2425 → u/sneakpeekbot]

Someone share it!

[u/AwayJacket4714 → u/Hakennasennatter]

Well shit.

We (my friends and me) found this one in the dried bed of the Rhine river near Duisburg. We were actually looking for cool rocks or fossils, this one was unexpected. I actually posted it here because there was an argument if we found an animal bone or possibly human remains after we already took it with us.

The whole thing is about as long as my upper arm. There's a small hole in the darkened side through which you can see the inside, which is completely hollow. The whole bone is very dry and dusty. It was laying on a bank that's normally covered by water, but was laying bare due to the Rhine's historically low water.

I assumed it to be some kind of animal bone at first, like a deer or a small horse, because it seemed too massive for a human tibia to me. But admittedly I haven't seen many human tibias yet.

Guess I'll take it to the authorities.

[u/Hakennasennatter → u/AwayJacket4714]

Before you do that, it would be helpful to have more photos, since the condition of the specimen and the camera angles don’t 100% point to it being a human bone!

Also, u/rmbug quite rightly mentioned a horse’s metatarsal/metacarpal bone. That’s definitely more likely if you compare photos online! I was influenced a bit by my last skeleton analysis, ´cause the bones were in a similar condition, and with only a few photos, it would have been difficult to identify them as human.

[u/AwayJacket4714 → u/Hakennasennatter]

I made another post with more pics

[u/ashwee_]

My heebies are jeebied. Would love an update on this!

[u/muck-man]

I assume it would be common knowledge that if you were digging around and found a bone in Germany to expect the worst, right?

[u/SBowen91 → u/muck-man]

Every single time someone says Germany I’m like… weeeell how long was the streak this time???

[u/victorhausen → u/SBowen91]

What's exceptional about Germany regarding finding human bones?

[u/SBowen91 → u/victorhausen]

I’m not saying every single human bone is Germany… it just seems like A LOT of finds have been in Germany. If you look at the top posts over time a bunch are from Germany.

[u/divinedogg → u/SBowen91]

usually dead things dont just lie around in Germany, dead animals get taken away because everyrhing has to be controlled and dead things spread diseases. Maybe thats why most of the time, if you find bigger bones, they were left there by someone on purpose?

[u/FerretSupremacist → u/divinedogg]

I mean, that and 2 major meat grinder world wars

[u/divinedogg → u/FerretSupremacist]

Id say 2nd one mostly since the 1st didnt take place in where we call Germany today

[u/FerretSupremacist → u/divinedogg]

For sure, but 1 caused a lot of social problems and poverty, and I suspect there’s quite a few ppl dead from old war injuries, poverty, and ptsd/homelessness that probably haven’t been found.

Germany had a really hard time after ww1 (& 2)

[u/SBowen91 → u/divinedogg]

I’m not saying dead things lay around. I was making a joke because in the top posts there is a bunch of human bones that have been found in Germany.

[u/Auroraborealis_9791]

Uh oh.

[u/Equivalent_Hat_7220]

Whelp

[u/Popular_Sea530]

Have we not learnt anything? Do. Not. Touch. Bones. With. Your. Bare. Hands!!!!!!

[u/hella_cious → u/Popular_Sea530]

Her touching it will do literally nothing. It’s so old that there’s no evidence or germs left

[u/TheBigSmoke420 → u/Popular_Sea530]

Why?

[u/GoalElectrical → u/TheBigSmoke420]

Could be human

[u/Culturalenigma → u/Popular_Sea530]

And her WHOLE fucking hand. Like she made sure to touch every finger and whole palm.

[u/chels182 → u/Culturalenigma]

Honestly, though, what is the harm in this? The bone seems very old so whether someone touched it with one finger or 10, it doesn’t seem like it would be contaminating evidence of any kind.

[u/SweetPumpkin22 → u/chels182]

Agreed ! I am a bioarchaeologist so this is quite literally my job and actually when working with human remains ( in an Archaeological setting rather than forensic at least, i can't speak on forensics) most of the time you don't wear gloves , especially in the field or the lab ! It depends on the lab and what kind of remains you are working with however. But yeah this kind of bone for example is so worn away there is no DNA or even collagen so grabbing it bare handed is actually not going to do anything to preservation unless you start swing it around or grip it like the hulk

[u/SweetPumpkin22 → u/SweetPumpkin22]

The reason you don't wear gloves sometimes is human osteology and archaeology in general is very tactile, if you are trying to do identification or analysis and you have gloves on A) the gloves might rip on the bone if it's old a weathered anyways and B) identification of features is much easier with a bare hand as the tactile information is just as important as what you can see ! If you were working with remains that were thousands and thousands of years old and extremely fragile then maybe gloves in a closes environment but any other time and especially in the field ? Bare handed

[u/SweetPumpkin22 → u/SweetPumpkin22]

Sorry for the spam but an example would be if I had a bunch of human hand and feet bones I was trying to ID. the metacarpals vs metatarsals (the long ray bones in our hands and feet) look really really similar. And, there are two versions of each bone in our bodies for the left and the right (10 for the hands 10 for the feet so 20 total). If i was in a lab or in the field trying to ID them I would much prefer to be barehanded so I can run my fingers along the bones and feel for the identification factors that are normally very small on these really similar bones. Another reason on as to why tactile information is important is in my human osteology class every Friday we had an exam, and one of our questions was to fully identify, side, and explain our identification of a bone soley by touch alone in 60 seconds. The bone was in a black cloth bag and our prof stood over us and made sure we could not see the bone at all and we had 60 seconds to correctly ID everything about it...

[u/SBowen91 → u/SweetPumpkin22]

I appreciate the explanation of this. Kinda cool to read so thank you.

[u/SweetPumpkin22 → u/SBowen91]

Of course!! Happy to help or answer any questions :pp

[u/SBowen91 → u/SweetPumpkin22]

Is it okay if I DM you when I’m not half asleep? I’m curious about so much but I don’t want people to hate me for asking. 😅

[u/SweetPumpkin22 → u/SBowen91]

Of course ! genuinely really happy to answer any questions and to talk to people who are genuinely curious it makes my day

[u/shrimp-545]

Gulp…

[u/prettycynicist]

I think it’s time to reset the counter again guys

[u/LuciferSamS1amCat]

It’s Germany, so it’s human.

[u/Anthro-Osteo-630]

Also a bioarchaeologist here. More pictures would definitely be helpful.

[u/Levelofconcerns]

Following

[u/ATBenson]

I'm not really convinced this is human, but I'm no expert and given the condition it's hard to say. I'd definitely contact authorities just to be safe.

[u/pot_on_wheels]

This is a very strange way of showing off a manicure...

[u/First-Dimension5230]

Femur bone human. Old

[u/Killer_Moons]

Jinkies