Bone identification help please.

[BadAdze]

My girlfriend found this one while on a gravel bar hunt on the 102 river in Northwest Missouri. Im thinking possibly a Bison tibia. Any help would be appreciated.

 

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[Paleopilot]

I would have to agree, Bison Tibia, probably Ice Age, late Pleistocene. Nice find.

 

[BadAdze]

Im going to photograph the other bones we found as well, also i have to go back and retrieve a partial skull from the spot, i could only see part of the jaw or cheek exposed with teeth still in it. Of course im waiting for the ground to maybe thaw some.

 

[mamabear]

skull would be an amazing find. hope you can retrieve it in decent shape.

 

[Paleopilot]

Im going to photograph the other bones we found as well, also i have to go back and retrieve a partial skull from the spot, i could only see part of the jaw or cheek exposed with teeth still in it. Of course im waiting for the ground to maybe thaw some.

By all means be very careful excavating those fossils! Always dig a good distance from the find and work your way inward by hand. The horns on the skull may be very long. If you are finding intact mandibles with teeth, you have a very well preserved specimen. Please post more pictures!

 

[BadAdze]

A vertebra and scapula from the same site. Any ideas if these are Bison as well?

 

[Paleopilot]

A vertebra and scapula from the same site. Any ideas if these are Bison as well?

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The scapula could be a deer or elk, I don't think it is bison. The thoracic vertebrae, hard to say, the spinous, (dorsal), fin is broken and the centrum facets are missing, it may in fact be a badly eroded lumbar. Lets wait for a second opinion on these.

 

[Paleopilot]

Here is a comparison to a Bison, 14th (last) Thoracic vertebrae, close match.

 

[Harry Pristis]

My girlfriend found this one while on a gravel bar hunt on the 102 river in Northwest Missouri. Im thinking possibly a Bison tibia. Any help would be appreciated.

For comparison:

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[Paleopilot]

More comparison.....

 

[Paleopilot]

I think from what I can see of the tibial crest, you have a right tibia, very close match. I'm staying with bison theory.

 

[BadAdze]

The measurements i have on this tibia are 14" 3.5" 1.75" , so this means its a larger cow compared to the comparison diagram?

 

[Paleopilot]

The measurements i have on this tibia are 14" 3.5" 1.75" , so this means its a larger cow compared to the comparison diagram?

The diagram I posted is of a left Bison Tibia, I think it is a very close match.

 

[Paleopilot]

Also I might add, if you take into consideration the amount of erosion your specimen has around the medial and lateral condyles, (imagine them with no erosion) a larger picture emerges. I'm not sure about the scapula though.

 

[Age_old]

Nice finds! I agree, looks like bison. I noticed the vertebra ins't fused, meaning the vertebra came from a juvenile. If the tibia is full-sized, you may be dealing with more than one individual. Defiantly head back to that site, there is no telling how much could be there. I really hope you can get back to that partial skull. Like they said above, be careful, and go slow! If you get it, make sure you post some pictures for us.

 

[BadAdze]

Most definitely, i am preparing as we communicate to do so. Thanks for all the feedback thus far.

 

[BadAdze]

These are the only 2 pictures i could take before my batteries died on the camera. I have them charging now, more photos after the charge or i find some more. All of this came from the same site, laying on top of the ground just under or up against some dead fall debris. The piece with the teeth was all there was, i thought it was buried because it was frozen to the ground yesterday. there is another piece that goes with it that came off of it when i picked it up, just forgot to put it in the photo.

 

[Paleopilot]

Hello Daniel, Wow! really nice finds, I'm seeing, from left to right, a well preserved and large Lumbar Vertebrea, A nice Thoracic vertabrae, cannon bone, the small fragment looks to be a piece of an ulna bone, would have been attached to a radius, Skull fragment with 4 intact teeth, Definitely Bison, and the vertabrae on the extreme right is also a thoracic. The other pic is another very nice thoracic specimen. Were there any smaller bones in the area? Usually in a dig that good, there are some hoof cores and toe bones, carpals and the like. Be sure and get all of them.

 

[BadAdze]

About how old are these might i ask? Also the separate photo is the same one that's in the group shot. I was just trying to do individuals to have some reference.

 

[Paleopilot]

About how old are these might i ask? Also the separate photo is the same one that's in the group shot. I was just trying to do individuals to have some reference.

That is hard to say without a closer examination. Then, without carbon date analysis it would still be an educated guess. The skull and horns would have made things easier, the now extinct Bison Antiquus had a much different horn configuration than the modern buffalo of today. The river environment preserves bones so well that when a flood or large construction project does unearth them, their condition is almost unbelievable! I think your finds are in all probability, late Pleistocene. !0 to 25 thousand years old.