ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the door to rapidly growing field through an introductory view of veterinary osteology focusing on mammalian osteology and touching on how this knowledge can then be used to address issues of abuse, cruelty, or neglect to demonstrate the utility of, and need for, veterinary osteology in forensic veterinary investigations. Osteology is the study of the structure and function of the skeleton and bony structures. In forensic veterinary osteology, the ultimate purpose in the analysis of a set of skeletal remains is to develop a biological profile, or a set of characteristics that an individual possessed during life that can be used to identify them after death. The potential applications of nonhuman osteology to veterinary forensic investigations are vast, but the value of these applications starts with an understanding of the bones themselves.
