Daltong Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 I found this lower right jaw bone exposed on the bed of a creek in north central florida. It appears to be from an extinct canine species, but I am unsure and figured someone on here probably has more knowledge than I do on what it could be. Measurements are 7 cm in height at the tallest point, almost 15 cm in length, and 1 cm in thickness. There is one molar missing, and the incisors at the front are missing as well. Any help is greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahnmut Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 Hi Daltong an welcome to the forum. Nice find! What tells you its an extinct species? Could be coyote? Best Regards, J 1 Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Henry Huxley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meganeura Posted January 20, 2023 Share Posted January 20, 2023 Looks to be modern (albeit old) coyote jaw to me, with that sizing. Fossils? I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daltong Posted January 20, 2023 Author Share Posted January 20, 2023 Thank y'all, I figured it was fossilized based off of the color and appearance of the bone, but definitely matches the size of a coyote jaw. I guess the color could have just been staining from decades underwater. Little disappointing to learn that it's less than a hundred years old but glad I was able to find out what it is. Hopefully I can find some actual fossils from ancient predators in the future. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meganeura Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 1 hour ago, Daltong said: Thank y'all, I figured it was fossilized based off of the color and appearance of the bone, but definitely matches the size of a coyote jaw. I guess the color could have just been staining from decades underwater. Little disappointing to learn that it's less than a hundred years old but glad I was able to find out what it is. Hopefully I can find some actual fossils from ancient predators in the future. Thanks again Well there are actually fossilized coyote material - Canis latrans riviveronis to be specific. Which existed during the pleistocene of Florida. So it is possible! But this one does look modern. Your best bet to confirm though - Take a flame to it. If it smokes/burns, it's modern. Otherwise it's likely fossilized. Fossils? I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mahnmut Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 Hi again, as Meganeura stated, it could be old, just hard to say how old. in water it could be tens of years, could be hundreds, if it weathered out of protecting ground recently. I only wanted to emphasize that that is not depending on the question if the species is extinct. At the moment there is one species lost about every hour, so you could get quite fresh remains of extinct species - A member posted a beautiful land snail shell some years ago that may well have been among the last of its kind, because its former endemic home is now a parking lot. On the other hand many extant species have been around with very little change long enough to leave fossils. And I always like finding traces of the time before parking lots, even if its just some years before. Best Regards, J Try to learn something about everything and everything about something Thomas Henry Huxley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daltong Posted January 21, 2023 Author Share Posted January 21, 2023 13 hours ago, Meganeura said: Well there are actually fossilized coyote material - Canis latrans riviveronis to be specific. Which existed during the pleistocene of Florida. So it is possible! But this one does look modern. Your best bet to confirm though - Take a flame to it. If it smokes/burns, it's modern. Otherwise it's likely fossilized. I had no idea there were coyotes here in the past. I will try the flame test and see what it is on Sunday, thanks for the suggestion. I'll probably try that more often since I have another interesting bone with cut marks that looks fossilized and worn by years underwater, but could be remains from a modern hunter cleaning a deer. I have a few more finds that I will post on a different thread for identification that are 100% fossilized teeth and claws. Thank you to everyone who helped out with this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meganeura Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 14 minutes ago, Daltong said: I had no idea there were coyotes here in the past. I will try the flame test and see what it is on Sunday, thanks for the suggestion. I'll probably try that more often since I have another interesting bone with cut marks that looks fossilized and worn by years underwater, but could be remains from a modern hunter cleaning a deer. I have a few more finds that I will post on a different thread for identification that are 100% fossilized teeth and claws. Thank you to everyone who helped out with this I only found that out recently myself - but the Pleistocene was only 10,000 years ago - animals don't change too much in that short a time span usually. Hence being able to find fossil raccoons, fossil opossums, fossil deer, etc. Fossils? I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daltong Posted January 23, 2023 Author Share Posted January 23, 2023 Ok did the burn test this morning and the coyote jaw is definitely not fossilized. The leg bone with cut marks from an ancient human is fossilized, it did not smoke or turn black like the jawbone did. I will post a thread later and see if anyone can identify it based on the shape of the bone. It looks like it could be something along the lines of tapir or deer but I know next to nothing on the anatomy of prehistoric animals. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meganeura Posted January 23, 2023 Share Posted January 23, 2023 1 hour ago, Daltong said: Ok did the burn test this morning and the coyote jaw is definitely not fossilized. The leg bone with cut marks from an ancient human is fossilized, it did not smoke or turn black like the jawbone did. I will post a thread later and see if anyone can identify it based on the shape of the bone. It looks like it could be something along the lines of tapir or deer but I know next to nothing on the anatomy of prehistoric animals. No surprise there - but it's still quite a cool find! Fossils? I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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