So I killed a dragon that had just been resurrected and it didn't turn to ash and I didn't absorb it's soul. I reloaded a save 3 times with the same results. This happened near Fort Greymoor and I've walked on up to Rorikstead and back and the body is still just lying there. Is this a known glitch or are there dragons that aren't supposed to turn to ash and bones? If it's a bug, is there a way to get that soul or am I just out of luck? It does make a nice picture though.

http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae33/Dragynlord/Skyrim/ScreenShot31_zpsf14aeac9.png

If this is a placed dragon that you killed, but was respawned by the game, then it may not give you a soul. Placed dragons are the ones that spawn at specific places in the game, but once killed can be replaced by a respawned dragon. This is say a dragon from a Dragon Shine or similar. These dragons can travel a bit, but are generally in the area that they were placed in originally.

OP: The Unofficial Patches supposedly fix this issue if you are on PC and you use them; I can't tell from your post whether you are playing on PC or console. I think the issue may be caused by dragons using the same alias (or reference ID) when they respawn (so pretty much what CCNA said above).

Unofficial Skyrim Patch log (v 1.0; Actor Fixes):

* Fixed some encounter dragons not burning up nor giving the player a soul when slain (respawned dragons were not being properly reset)

Thanks, I am on pc with windows 8.1 and I do have the unofficial skyrim patch installed. I saw Alduin hovering over a burial mound and so charged in and started whacking away. The dragons name was Vuljotnaak and he did get fully formed before I finally killed it.

I've had issues with that same dragon before. I think I absorbed his soul just fine, but I remember that his skeleton would remain forever and not clean up and would occasionally randomly show up in different areas in the game world. If the corpse refuses to cleanup you should be able to select it by using the console and typing markfordelete. That should permanently delete it from the game when you leave the area and is supposedly cleaner than using the disable command, which apparently never fully removes it from the game.

Also, I am pretty sure this is a game engine issue that the Unofficial Patches can't fix. It seems to happen randomly with dragon corpses under rare circumstances.

I'm beginning to think it is a problem with my game. I tried one more reload, This time there was an unnamed dragon attacking Fort Greymoor. It also didn't give up a soul or turn to a skeleton after I killed it. I fast traveled to Whiterun and back and the entire dragon had disappeared leaving only the bandits it had killed. From there Alduin was resurrecting Vuljotnaak except he never did materialize. Just a cone of light into the sky. I waited and waited but nothing changed. On to Morthal and another unnamed dragon attacked the town. After it was dead same story, no soul and the intact body just lying there. None of this seems normal to me but I'm brand new to Skyrim so I'm not sure what to expect. Anyway, thanks for the replies.