Bones
All season 6 mistakesMistakes
1The Mastodon in the Room2
2The Couple in the Cave5
3The Maggots in the Meathead1
4The Body and the Bounty0
5The Bones That Weren't1
6The Shallow in the Deep1
7The Babe in the Bar1
8The Twisted Bones in the Melted Truck4
9The Doctor in the Photo0
10The Body in the Bag0
11The Bullet in the Brain1
12The Sin in the Sisterhood0
13The Daredevil in the Mold0
14The Bikini in the Soup0
15The Killer in the Crosshairs1
16The Blackout in the Blizzard2
17The Feet on the Beach1
18The Truth in the Myth1
19The Finder0
20The Pinocchio in the Planter1
21The Signs in the Silence0
22The Hole in the Heart2
23The Change in the Game0
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The Girl in the Mask - S4-E23

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)

tinsmith

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.

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