A skull found on a Pacific atoll in 1940 that has been housed in a museum for decades is being examined to determine if it belongs to Amelia Earhart.

The aviation pioneer and her navigator Fred Noonan vanished over the Pacific Ocean during an attempt to circumnavigate the globe in 1937.

Bone fragments were first discovered on Nikumaroro Island about three years after Earhart went missing. 

Dr. Erin Kimmerle, a forensic anthropologist at University of South Florida, will now examine the skull and other remains using DNA testing to determine if they are those of the missing explorer.

Dr. Kimmerle told Fox13: 'In 1940 there were human remains found with a camp-site, kind of a castaway site on an uninhabited atoll.

'In the area where they think she might have had an emergency landing. At the time, the island was occupied by the British, and the guy who found them thought this might be her.