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Lucky the fossil-hunting dog did himself proud today.
For those who don't know, our house is built on several acres of old mining tailings, which consist of gravel and rock dredged up from what used to be a dry riverbed covered with swamp muck. The gravel is full of partially mineralized Ice Age mammal bones, teeth, antlers, etc. Apparently to the dogs, they still smell like bones, and Lucky in particular is fond of hunting for them when we're out on walkies. (He does look a bit depressed when I ask him to hand them over, though.) Because of the dredging operations in this area, most of the bones have been broken to bits, and it's rare to find intact ones. The best ones he's found so far have been several intact bison horns, but this was pretty good:
( Check it! )
After some Googling and staring at large animal skeletons for a while, I decided it's probably a bison metacarpal - here's a bison skeleton and here's a closeup of the metacarpals that looks, if not exactly then at least quite similar to this bone. It's too thick and stumpy to belong to a deer or horse.
For those who don't know, our house is built on several acres of old mining tailings, which consist of gravel and rock dredged up from what used to be a dry riverbed covered with swamp muck. The gravel is full of partially mineralized Ice Age mammal bones, teeth, antlers, etc. Apparently to the dogs, they still smell like bones, and Lucky in particular is fond of hunting for them when we're out on walkies. (He does look a bit depressed when I ask him to hand them over, though.) Because of the dredging operations in this area, most of the bones have been broken to bits, and it's rare to find intact ones. The best ones he's found so far have been several intact bison horns, but this was pretty good:
( Check it! )
After some Googling and staring at large animal skeletons for a while, I decided it's probably a bison metacarpal - here's a bison skeleton and here's a closeup of the metacarpals that looks, if not exactly then at least quite similar to this bone. It's too thick and stumpy to belong to a deer or horse.
