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[Sphalerite]

Actually, a 'partial skeleton' is what you get when a mutilated corpse rots.  Basically it means that one or more body parts was removed from the skeleton before it rotted - for example, an arm or a leg getting chopped off.  It's treated the same as an intact skeleton as far as your butcher is concerned.  Skeletons and partial skeletons can both be processed into bones, provided that the corpse is one which can be butchered in the first place.

In the current version of Dwarf Fortress the civilization ethics determined prohibition against butchering sentient creatures such as elves and goblins applies to their skeletons as well, which is why you can't take a elf or goblin skeleton (or partial skeleton) and turn it into a stack of bones.  The same also applies to any tame animal which died for any reason other than being slaughtered at a butcher's shop, so war dogs that died in ambushes or dairy cows that die of old age can't be butchered and will leave unusable skeletons (or partial skeletons for dogs cut in half by an ambush).  I have heard it claimed that skeletons may eventually rot to bones, but this seems to happen very rarely.  It seems to happen more often if a creature is torn to pieces in the process of dying, such as by stepping on a weapon trap full of masterwork steel serrated disks or falling 15 Z-levels to splatter to bits.  It also appears that dwarves in strange moods will sometimes grab partial skeletons to use as a source of bones.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Which sucks over all as it makes getting bones MUCH harder.
I remember in 40, having mountains of goblin bones, orc bones, etc.  Now all of those bodies just rot because they can't be butchered.  I don't even care about the meat, but the fact that a "partial skelton" will NEVER become a pile of bones is a pain.  Is this something Toady is working on for future patches?

[Slayer]

Which sucks over all as it makes getting bones MUCH harder.
I remember in 40, having mountains of goblin bones, orc bones, etc.  Now all of those bodies just rot because they can't be butchered.  I don't even care about the meat, but the fact that a "partial skelton" will NEVER become a pile of bones is a pain.  Is this something Toady is working on for future patches?

You had piles of unused bones? What bolts did your marksdwarves use for practice? Wooden bolts?

[Jacob/Lee]

They never rot away. Ever. Not even after decades of in-game time.

Dump them into the atom smasher or into magma and the problem will be resolved.

You sure? I swear if you dump any kinds of refuse outside it will rot away.

[ShinWalks]

I suspect what's really happening is that severed limbs (including upper/lower bodies) rot into stacks of usable bones while [mutilated] corpses just decay into useless [partial] skeletons.

seconded, this is what I've observed

[jogar2]

I set up two butchers right next door to my [outdoors] refuse pile, and they very quickly became *CLUTTERED*. I have four craftsdwarf workshops next to them working 24/7 making bone crafts. Partial skeletons are definitely butcherable. The soft tissue just has to rot on its own.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I call BS.

I set up a special Refuse pile outside where I was able to put ONLY 'partial skeltons' into it.
After three years of rain and snow, not a single one has ever turnned into anythign useful.  Further, since butcher shops AUTO butcher anythign that CAN be butchered, the fact that the partial skeletons have never been touched leads credance to the assertion that they are utterly useless.

[Sphalerite]

Are the Partial Skeletons those of sentient creatures (elves, goblins, humans, kobolds)?  If so, they won't be butchered because your dwarves won't butcher sentient creatures.  Being a 'partial' skeleton has nothing to do with it.  Likewise, partial skeletons of war dogs that died fighting goblins won't be butchered because tame animals that died from any cause other than being deliberately slaughtered by a dwarf at a butcher's shop can't be butchered.  Partial skeletons of wild animals should be butcherable, provided that the original wild animal would have been butcherable, but sometimes mutilated corpses or partial skeletons won't be butchered because they are too small to yield any meat or bones when butchered.  You see that sometimes when small creatures like buzzards are cut apart - your butcher won't butcher them because there's just nothing there worth butchering.

[darkflagrance]

I call BS.

I set up a special Refuse pile outside where I was able to put ONLY 'partial skeltons' into it.
After three years of rain and snow, not a single one has ever turnned into anythign useful.  Further, since butcher shops AUTO butcher anythign that CAN be butchered, the fact that the partial skeletons have never been touched leads credance to the assertion that they are utterly useless.

I've created "dark dwarf" fortresses in the current version with cannibalism and similar ethics. They butcher sentient partial skeletons just fine. The problem is that they are still completely and utterly useless to vanilla dwarves without a little modding.