SCIENTISTS WILL ATTEMPT TO extract DNA from bone fragments discovered on an uninhabited South Pacific island in an effort to identify them as belonging to missing pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, the PA reports.

Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 during her bid to become the first woman to fly around the world.

Three small bone fragments were found on the island earlier this year, along with buttons, a zipper from a flight jacket and a compact mirror, according to the AP. The island, about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii, lay along the route Earhart was following when she disappeared.

The bone pieces were discovered on Nikumaroro island at a site which appeared to have been used by Westerners to prepare meals and eat fish, according to Ric Gillespie, director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. The fragments could help prove Earhart died as a castaway on the island.

Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic and the second person to do so solo.

[caption id="attachment_59868" align="alignnone" width="392" caption="One of the bone fragments collected from the South Pacific island of Nikumaroro. (AP Photo/TIGHAR)"][/caption]