Bison Bison Jaw?

[sergeir]

Bison bison or Bos Taurus (cow)? Found on a river gravel bar in Sothern Minnesota. Sediments in the area range from cretaceous to holocoen with a good amount of Wisconsin lobe glacial till. Previously we have found other bison (long bones and teeth), elk, bear, mammoth, and ancient horse...

 

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[crashbandicoot]

Don,t know man,but it,s cool!Good find.

 

[Sandmaniac]

I'd have to yes.

 

[SweepNbeep]

Good question. We find jaws like that in North Dakota, which was home to millions of both cows and bison over the years. I’ve looked the up somewhat, but don’t know how to tell 100%. Anybody know how to? My guess would be by the teeth.

 

[SweepNbeep]

Yours looks like bison teeth, Id say. But the jaws all look the same to me.

 

[Older The Better]

The teeth are key to telling between bison and cow I believe the stylid on bison teeth is detached while on a cow it’s attached with the rest of the tooth

 

[Red-Coat]

The teeth are key to telling between bison and cow I believe the stylid on bison teeth is detached while on a cow it’s attached with the rest of the tooth

Yes, the degree of isolation of the stylid on the molars is a pretty reliable indicator, although not 100% conclusive. I posted a diagnostic picture of a bison molar with an isolated stylid a while ago:




http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/623248-cow-bison.html

In addition to that picture, when the molars have significant occlusal wear, the isolated stylid may appear as a ring donut or oval/teardrop shape that's distinctly separate from the main cusps of the tooth. Like this:

 

[Clo]

Painshill redcoat never ceases to amaze. How does a red coat know so much about American bison (and apparently everything else in the world)?

 

[GoldieLocks]

I was just saying g how a TV show was explained ing that it wasn't just the Spanish that introduced the horse to the US area. An older smaller version had been found.

 

[Older The Better]

Had camels and cheetahs too

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

It looks more like a horses jawbone, the way the front of the jawbone is straight out and not curved up.

 

[Red-Coat]

How does a red coat know so much about American bison?

We had bison in Europe too of course, although they would be a rare find in Britain, unless from the North Sea between us and continental Europe. Nevertheless, I have a large fossil and bone collection from all around the world.

I was just saying g how a TV show was explained ing that it wasn't just the Spanish that introduced the horse to the US area. An older smaller version had been found.

Horses originally evolved in North America (the wild horse Equus ferus and several species of stilt-legged horse - notably Equus francisci and Equus calobatus) and migrated across the Bering land bridge into Eurasia. They seem to have undergone several extinctions in North America and re-populated back from Eurasia. They were finally hunted (maybe) to extinction in North America at the end of the last ice age, around 10,000-12,000 years ago.

At the beginning of what is known as the “Columbian Exchange” when all kinds of new species of animals and plants were introduced to the Americas, there were no horses of any kind on the American continent. Horses (domesticated ones) were reintroduced to the mainland by the conquistadore Cortés in 1519 via the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and a little later by De Coronado via New Mexico and De Soto via Florida around 1539-1540.

It looks more like a horses jawbone, the way the front of the jawbone is straight out and not curved up.

When jawbone diagnostics are uncertain or compromised by deterioration, again it’s the molars that provide the best identification for Bovid vs Equid.

 

[sergeir]

Thank you all for the responses, images, and additional information! Yes - from past experience teeth and stylids are the key as many have mentioned. If the stylids are isolated there's a better chance it's bison bison. But I've read information provided by a few Paleontologists that more study, morphometrics, needs to be done. I.e. "sometimes" Bos Taurus (domestic cattle) will have isolated stylids also and the amount of wear may also be a factor into whether the stylid appears isolated or not in both species. However, all is not lost for my specimen - I have also read that if the M3 molar is over 40mm in length this also may indicate bison bison. In this case, the M3 is 42 cm across the chewing surface the stylids do not appear completely isolated, however. They are worn very low - I added an additional photo above. I have donated this specimen to the Science Museum of Minnesota so hopefully, I get a definitive ID at some point. Either way, it was the first bovine jaw I found. It was big, very crusty, one of my favorite finds of 2020. If I ever find out 1000% I will update this thread or post about it in the Minnesota Fossil Finders group.