I think something that has been lost in the "letdown" over the perceived lack of progress in extracting useable DNA from the finger bone found at the 7 site is the fact that a human being's bone was found at the 7 site.
So we now know, for sure, that someone died there. That, to me, is huge.
Sure, at this stage, it could have been anyone. Maybe a native lost a fingertip in a coconut planting accident or while cutting brush. Maybe a Coast Guardsman shot a fingertip off while target shooting. Heck, maybe Gallagher mangled himself somehow while looking for Amelia. Or maybe, just maybe, it belongs to one of the two people we hope it belongs to.
Regardless, it is the remains of a human being. In a place where there is no immediately logical explanation for the remains of a human being to be, other than the one TIGHAR is proposing. And that, to me, is huge.
Monty Fowler,
TIGHAR No. 2189