Bison skull need help identifying

[amberrose17]

This was found in north Dakota 

This site has just been exposed there's been  a 2 year drought and a lot of high winds  , we also found Folsom points ,ultra thin halfted knifes , all made with knife river flint ,a lot of large preforms with Paleo flaking,  points were sent to Jackson galleries and were authenticated as Folsom, 

This skull looks like it's from a very young bison , the way the horns seem to be bending is different from a bison antiquus , 

They look to be bending downward, 

Tip to tip it's 24 inches, 

 

[dbrake40]

This looks a lot like domestic cattle - Bos taurus.

[amberrose17]

The skull is 6 inches long , ,that would mean it was a yearling with a set of horns 24inches tip to tip , 

I'm pretty sure it's not a cow , 

[Thomas.Dodson]

I'm going to have to agree on domestic cattle for this one.

[AlbertaRockHound]

Absolutely bovine 

[Harry Pristis]

2 hours ago, AlbertaRockHound said:

Absolutely bovine 

That's not helpful, Alberta.  

Bovines (subfamily Bovinae) comprise a diverse group of 10 genera of medium to large-sized ungulates, including cattle, bison, African buffalo, water buffalos, and the four-horned and spiral-horned antelopes. The evolutionary relationship between the members of the group is still debated, and their classification into loose tribes rather than formal subgroups reflects this uncertainty. General characteristics include cloven hooves and usually at least one of the sexes of a species having true horns. The largest extant bovine is the gaur.  ---Wikipedia

[ClearLake]

On 10/10/2022 at 8:16 PM, amberrose17 said:

The skull is 6 inches long , ,that would mean it was a yearling with a set of horns 24inches tip to tip

I’m a bit confused, or maybe there is a typo. You’re saying the piece you have is 6” long (front to back) but you are missing probably 50-75% of the skull. You don’t have anything from the back of the eye sockets on forward. I know that doesn’t directly answer the ID question, but I just want to understand your concern with the IDs proposed. 

[Brandy Cole]

I agree that it doesn't appear to be bison, as I know of no North American bison species that has horns naturally growing downward in the manner shown in the second picture.

There are some helpful visual depictions here:

 

A 'horns down' growth is commonly associated with the modern age method of 'horn sloping'--placing weights on the ends of the horns of domestic cattle to make the horns grow downward and make the animal less dangerous.

 

Some North American cattle breeds, like longhorn, also naturally slope down before they come back up.

 

When I see a skull with downward pointing horns, I start with the assumption that it's modern, not fossil.

[Brandy Cole]

@amberrose17 When you mention a measurement being six inches long, are you maybe talking about width of the skull between the bases of the horn cores?  If so, a good picture of that width with the measuring tape above it would be useful.  I'll admit, in Texas, I'm a lot more used to seeing them alive where they look much bigger and haven't spent any time measuring bare skulls. But to me, six inches width between cores could still be consistent with adult cattle depending on sex and breed, which seems to be backed up by a chart I found here:

http://www.ace.hu/am/2013_4/AM-13-04-KA.pdf

 

There can be a lot of size variation in that type of measurement depending on sex and how far laterally the horns typically develop in different breeds.  The charts above are for Hungarian Greys.  I'm not sure what breeds are most common where you are.  But from personal experience with several different breeds of Texas cattle, I can say that width between horns varies greatly by sex and breed.

 

Congratulations on finding the points, by the way.  Sounds like it's a great productive site!

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by Brandy Cole
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[amberrose17]

I'm begining to see where everyone is coming from regarding it being bovine , it must be old it seems to be starting to petrify ,thank you for the input