Mammoth or Bovine?

[kid kettle]

Hey folks,

I love the internet. I had no idea there were people out there I could just ASK what my friend found! I thought I'd always have to wonder.

I'm not in the same place as the fossil anymore, so I'm sorry that all I have for scale is my hand and a phone in the background of the photos. (I didn't know that was bad for scale until it wasn't in my possession anymore -- the fossil, not my hand.)

I know my friend found this "neat rock" (fossil) on an active gold mine in Canada's Yukon, and that there were reports of Mammoth fossils found along the same line of claims... but never having been this close to an actual bone fossil before, I had no idea if this is an old cow bone, or that of something more interesting. I tried to load as many photos as I could so you could see it from different angles.

I ask if it's mammoth or bovine only because with my luck, I'm hopeful it's a mammoth, but with my luck, it's a cow or a ox or something. I actually have no idea what kind of bone it is... it could be from anything at all.

If anyone has any ideas of what it could be from, that'd be great. Unfortunately, it was on a 'worked' part of the claim, so the land had all be disturbed around it so this piece was all by its lonesome so there's not really any 'context' I can share other than that the miner seemed fairly happy with the claim site.

I appreciate any help (even ideas of what part of the body it could be?)

many thanks,

kk

Edited May 25, 2016 by kid kettle

[Darktooth]

Welcome to the forum from New York. While I cannot help with your ID, I am sure one of our more knowledgeable members can.

[kid kettle]

Thanks very much for the welcome and for taking a looksee. The photo I used for my profile is what the mine owner told us was a Mammoth tooth. I couldn't get over how heavy it was! The thing that made me think my friend's "neat rock" was a fossil was that it was stone, but weighed so little! Also, what I can only describe as the marrow holes (rather than the inside of an Aero chocolate bar.)

Yeah, so I've always loved hunting for and finding neat stones, rocks and fossils, but nothing caught my attention quite like this one. Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction. I'm super curious -- and now that I know there's a group of awesome folks out there that I can ask for help... well now I NEED to know the answer!

have a great night new york,

kk

Edited May 25, 2016 by kid kettle

[Rockwood]

I think the odds favor this being Mammoth bone as you suggest. Conclusive proof can be quite tricky with incomplete bones of this age though.

[kid kettle]

Thanks for letting me know Rockwood. Do you know of any way I could find out for sure?