New Haven Police officers found what appeared to be a kidney and a liver on the sidewalk of South Frontage Road near the Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital after responding to a call from a concerned resident early Wednesday evening.

Though the police originally believed the organs were human, an investigation by the state medical examiner confirmed yesterday that the organs belonged to a deer. The organs were not in any sort of container.

Police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester said an investigation into the origin of the organs is ongoing.

School of Medicine Dean Robert Alpern said the organs could not have come from the medical school, as no deer are used for either dissection or experimentation. He said he was concerned about the suggestion in early reports that the organs found were human and may have come from the school’s anatomy laboratory on College Street.

“I worry that stories like this discourage people from donating organs,” Alpern said.

Mark D’Antonio, a Yale New-Haven spokesman, said the hospital has no connection to the organs found.