ID Help with Bone from Matoaka

[Snaggletooth19]

Hi all, 

I was at Matoaka yesterday (Calvert Cliffs, Choptank Formation, Miocene), and happened upon this bone a little bit north of the main cliffs. It looks like either a carpal or tarsal bone. Definitely heavier, fossilized bone. Possibly a terrestrial mammal of some kind? If anyone has any ideas, I'm not as familiar with the land-dwellers of the time period.

[Harry Pristis]

The images are too dark to make a reliable guess.  Try photographing the bone in better light, daylight if possible.

[Fossildude19]

Cropped, contrasted, and brightened:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cck]

Looks like the broken end of a long bone? Tibia?

[jpc]

this looks to me like one of the wrist/ankle bones of an artiodactyl.  

[Snaggletooth19]

Hi all, thanks for the input and to Fossildude19 for modifying the photos.

 

I believe I've identified this bone as a cubonavicular bone (also centroquartal or navicular-cuboid bone, I can't remember from vet school which is preferred but I think they're interchangeable), the fused central and IV tarsal bones.

 

I think most likely it's from a white-tailed deer. I've included some photo comparisons for justification. The first, second, and third comparisons are from Mead and Taylor: New Bovid from the Pliocene of Nevada. This was more of a prehistoric sheep-like animal than a deer, but also had a fused 4th and central tarsal bone.

 

The fourth comparison is from Bruno C. Schimming et al. from a paper on Brazilian Marshdeer (bone numbered 4). This makes my bone look like it came from a right hindlimb.

 

And last but not least, Harry Pristis had posted some images of a whitetail deer cubonavicular bone here on the forum a few years ago from the Peace River that seals the deal for me. 

 

The question I still have is, if white-tailed deer have been around for a little over 3 million years, is there any way of telling how old it might be coming from this area? My understanding is that it has to be at least 10K years old to be fossilized. I assume it must have eroded out of the cliffs high above the Miocene deposits and then washed up. Any thoughts?