Question: When Doctor Brennan is examining the victim's skull, she states that a "straight suture across the palatine bone" indicates that the victim was a native Japanese speaker. I've studied linguistics, but I've never heard of a person's native language actually affecting their anatomy. So, for example: would a person of Japanese heritage who was born and raised in the US and spoke only English be distinguishable from a person who grew up in Japan and spoke only Japanese, purely by their palatine bones? (00:06:10)
Question: Has the mother been cast yet? Also, does the film crew know who the mother is already?
Chosen answer: She was finally shown at the very end of the last episode of season 8, continuing into season 9. The actor's name is Cristin Milioti: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2129662/.
Question: Was Series 2 shortened? Series 1 had 12 episodes vs 10 for Series 2. Also some of the subplots in Series 2 didn't really go anywhere and were tied up abruptly, e.g. Tyman killing his brother.
Answer: The show became too costly to produce so they ended the season early to save money.
Answer: Since the palatine bone is a bone that helps form the mouth it has a lot to do with speaking. The shape of it differs a lot depending on your ethnic background. I would guess that they, in the show, meant that the person's bone tells that they were Japanese and that it was "made for the purpose of speaking Japanese." That's what I'd assume anyway. I've studied molecular biology though, so I'm not an expert on bones.