Good Reference For Pleistocene Mammal Bones Id?

[Treasure Hunting Trucker]

I purchased someone's lifetime collection of ice age mammal bones on ebay. On a personal level, I find this both a great learning opportunity, as I'm not well versed in vertebrates, and also somewhat depressing that someone's entire life's experience collecting changed hands for a small bit of paper. Times are hard, I wish him well. Anywise, I'm looking for a way to identify these bones without just asking people what they are. I'll learn the biology better if I research it myself. Does anyone know of a good website or book for deer, elk, bison fossils from the Kansas River area in Kansas? I appreciate any leads.

Ken Moore

Www.treasurehuntingtrucker.WordPress.com

[Ramo]

Wish I could help, but that is a little out of my area of knowledge. However I have floated the Kaw, and picked up a few bones in it. I think most bones found there are most likely from bison (or modern cows). You might want to start by looking at some bison bones to see if anything you have is a close match, and go from there. Of course, you could have something from an animal much more rare, but I'd bet bison is a good start.

Good luck.

Ramo

[RichW9090]

Brown, Christopher L and Carl E. Gustafson, 1990, A Key to the Postcranial Skeletal Remains of Cattle/Bison, Elk and Horse. Washington State University Laboratory of Anthropology Reports of Investigations No. 57, 199 pages.

Lawrence, Barbara 1951, Postcranial Skeletal Characters of Deer, Pronghorn, and Sheep-Goat with notes on Bos and Bison. Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Volume 35 (5) Pt. II, pp. 9-43

Sisson, Septimus and James D. Grossman, 1938, The Anatomy of the Domestic Animals, W. B. Saunders Co., Publishers, 3rd edition, 972 pages.

The guides by Gilbert and by Olsen will be of some help as well.

Edited June 4, 2013 by RichW9090

[steve71]

look up florida fossils and compare them thats how i learned about my fossils.

[painshill]

There's a good summary of Bison osteology here:

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~lctodd/bison.htm

[Treasure Hunting Trucker]

Awesome. Thanks a ton, everybody.

[bone2stone]

There's a good summary of Bison osteology here:

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~lctodd/bison.htm

Thank you Roger, this is just the kind of info that enlightens us all and broadens our knowledge.

Helped me out with a recent tarsal bone question.

Jess B.

[Xiphactinus]

This has been pretty helpful with Kansas River stuff for me. It only deals with non-extinct animals as it is designed to help ID bones in archeological sites, but 90% of what you find on the river is in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Mammalian-Osteology-Miles-B-Gilbert/dp/0943414717

[RichW9090]

Miles Gilbert has a similar guide to bird bones that is much more useful than Olsen's.