Buffalo Bone

[BosnMate]

I was camped near Red Lodge, Montana, and took a side trip down to Cody to the Buffalo Bill Museum, and on display were some buffalo bones with cut marks on them, showing that the animal had been butchered for meat. Back at camp, a fellow had been digging a buffalo jump on a friends ranch, and he had bones and teeth for sale. I checked his bones with my newly gained knowledge, found cut marks just like at the museum and bought the bone for my collection. I think it's interesting, and I don't know if the cuts were with stone tools or a steel knife, but simply because the cuts are so fine, I'm opting for them being made by a trade knife, which would date the bone to the early 1800's.

 

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[larson1951]

Nah. Here's some knaw marks for you.
Teeth don't make single cuts.. they are in pairs at the very least PaleoPiolet
View attachment 716168

now these are in pairs and i am thinking these are from a beaver, porcupine, large rat gopher etc where these definately have the two teeth in pairs unlike something like wolf, coyote, fox, bear etc
only thing is i do not know which of the above were/are prolific in the areas found ....which appear to be a terrible long ways apart unless
i am missing something, just my 2 cents... and maybe not worth that?

 

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[Paleopilot]

Nah. Here's some knaw marks for you.
Teeth don't make single cuts.. they are in pairs at the very least PaleoPiolet
View attachment 716168

Agreed, the size and species of the scavenger would of course determine the tooth spacing. A Dire Wolf would be interested in the marrow of a fresh kill, and the resulting gnaw marks would be consistent with attempts at breaking or at least fracturing the bone. First task would have been to separate the larger leg bones from one another, this was done rather quickly in view of the fact that they hunted in packs, then the bone crunching would begin. There are other circumstances of course, the victim may have succumbed to drowning or quicksand and not discovered by predators until it was time for the carrion seekers to have a meal, vultures, rats etc. Every situation would be unique. I have a large collection of bones of every description, butchered, ravaged, eaten and gnawed. This is a very interesting look into the past for many, thank you for posting.

 

[Harry Pristis]

Agreed, the size and species of the scavenger would of course determine the tooth spacing. A Dire Wolf would be interested in the marrow of a fresh kill, and the resulting gnaw marks would be consistent with attempts at breaking or at least fracturing the bone. First task would have been to separate the larger leg bones from one another, this was done rather quickly in view of the fact that they hunted in packs, then the bone crunching would begin. There are other circumstances of course, the victim may have succumbed to drowning or quicksand and not discovered by predators until it was time for the carrion seekers to have a meal, vultures, rats etc. Every situation would be unique. I have a large collection of bones of every description, butchered, ravaged, eaten and gnawed. This is a very interesting look into the past for many, thank you for posting.

Wolves are not particularly well-adapted for bone crushing. Scars on bones chewed by wolves are more than likely from attempts to strip meat and sinew from the bone.

There were canids, the Borophaginae, which were adapted to crushing bones, but they are extinct now. A borophagine (literally, "gluttonous eater") was a dog, with teeth specialized for crushing bone -- eating everything. The Borophaginae were a large subfamily with many successful species. Epicyon haydeni is the largest representative known from Florida. The last representative, Osteoborus ("bone-eater"), became extinct in the Pliocene.

One prominent feature of these dogs was the large and crowded lower premolar four (p4) and molar one (m1 - the carnassial). Premolar three was reduced in size. This arrangement of teeth turned the p4-m1 conjunction into a crushing platform for reducing meat and bone to an appropriate size.

Notice in this example that, while all the teeth are heavily worn, the crucial p4-m1 crushing platform is destroyed. It wasn't broken as a fossil. The carnasial was worn down in life to its two roots -- you can make out the wear facets on the stubs.

We can't say how this dog died. It was not an abscess on this jaw that killed it. I like to think it was plain ole' old age -- that the king (or queen) just wore out as did his teeth.

Family Canidae
Subfamily Borophaginae
Epicyon haydeni
Late Miocene (Hemphillian)
Haile 19a (long buried by mine reclamation)
near Newberry,
Alachua County, Florida

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[Tnmountains]

Do yall have porcupines TN?

No porcupines. Lots of beaver,muskrat and a few river otters. That was from a beaver.

 

[Paleopilot]

Very interesting. The teeth tell the story indeed! Here are some of my discoveries of butchered and gnawed bones...The specimans are Bison herbivore, late Pleistocene. They must of had some very large and sharp tools!

 

[Harry Pristis]

Here are some bite marks on bone (of course, these are almost certainly bites from amphicyonids, not canids.)

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[Paleopilot]

Large Ice Age Bison Rib with a point wound...