A section of vertebrae found this past weekend along the beach at Sandy Hook was not a human bone, officials say.

“It was turned over to the county coroner, and he determined it belonged to an animal,” Island County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Wallace said Thursday. He said the type of animal wasn’t determined.

The bone was discovered Saturday afternoon by a beach walker with a residence in the area who called 911 about 4 p.m., Wallace said.

The sheriff’s office has urged residents and visitors to report the finding of bones that might be human after a portion of a human skull was found on Maxwelton Beach this past November.

Investigation determined that the skull was that of a male 35 years or younger. Two marks on the skull indicate the victim may have been struck with a sharp instrument such as an axe, hatchet or machete, and that death could have occurred as long as 10 years ago or longer.

A DNA investigation of the skull is still under way, Wallace said.

Meanwhile, officials say the skull has no connection to the 10 detached feet that have washed up on beaches in British Columbia and Puget Sound in the past three and a half years.