I’ve been following this bit of research for years, and now Discovery News has an update. TIGHAR has shed a grim, haunting light on Amelia Earhart’s last days as a castaway:
Recovered by British Colonial Service Officer Gerald Gallagher, the human remains were described in a forensic report and attributed to a white female of northern European extraction, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, a stature consistent with that of Amelia Earhart. Unfortunately the bones have been lost.
Gillespie believes that many of the bones might have been carried off by giant coconut crabs, suggesting an unmerciful end for Earhart. However, parts of the skeleton not found in 1940 (the spine, ribs, half of the pelvis, hands and feet, one arm, and one lower leg) may still remain at the site, scattered in the bush.
The researchers have just carried out an experiment to test the hypothesis.
“In 2007 we conducted a taphonomy experiment with a small pig carcass to see how quickly the crabs would eat the remains, and how far, if at all, the crabs dragged the bones. The primary answers were ‘pretty quickly’ and ‘all over the place,'” Patricia Thrasher, TIGHAR’s president, told Discovery News.
“This trip, they went back to the site to look at the bones that were left. It’s now been three years that these mammal bones have been out in the weather on Nikumaroro. If Gallagher found Amelia Earhart’s bones, that’s how long they would have been lying out,” Thrasher said.
Indeed, the bones looked much older than three years, in accordance with Gallagher’s report of gray, pitted, dry remains.
Gillespie dropped the pig bones on the coral rubble, and they virtually disappeared, to the point that it took some searching to find them again some 10 minutes later.
Apart from searching the coral rubble for bones not seen by Gallangher, the team is investigating an area around a big Ren tree. There, they spotted a rough ring of fire remains which prompted several questions.
Did the castaway construct a ring of fire to keep the crabs away at night?
Coconut crabs, if you didn’t know, are these: 
Nikumaroro is crawling with them. The good news is they’re edible. The bad news is – so are you.