Bones found on a remote Pacific island in 1940 were likely those of famed pilot Amelia Earhart, according to new study.

If true, the findings would settle a long debate over the fate of Earhart, who vanished while attempting a round-the-world flight in 1937.

The new study re-examined measurements of several bones that were found on the Pacific island of Nikumaroro, but are now lost. The measurements led a scientist in 1940 to conclude that they belonged to a man, a finding reinforced by a 2015 study.

But University of Tennessee anthropologist Richard Jantz carried out a new analysis, published in the journal Forensic Anthropology, that "strongly supports the conclusion that the Nikumaroro bones belonged to Amelia Earhart."

Using new techniques, Jantz compared estimates of Earhart's bone lengths with the Nikumaroro bones and concluded in the study that "the only documented person to whom they may belong is Amelia Earhart."