He must have carefully separated the skull from the atlas instead of just cutting through the neck.

Then there is the way he divided the trunk; the twelfth ribs have just come in with this lot, but the twelfth dorsal vertebra to which they belong was attached to the lower half.

Imagine the trouble he must have taken to do that, and without cutting or hacking the bones about, either.

It is extraordinary.

This is rather interesting, by the way.
Handle it carefully." He picked up the breast-bone daintily--for it was covered with wet mud--and handed it to me with the remark: "That is the most definite piece of evidence we have." "You mean," I said, "that the union of the two parts into a single mass fixes this as the skeleton of an elderly man ?" "Yes, that is the obvious suggestion, which is confirmed by the deposit of bone in the rib-cartilages.