New Jersey Mammal ID - Pleistocene or modern

[frankh8147]

Hello everyone!

 

This bone was found in Monmouth County (Big Brook area) New Jersey. We found this on the way home from a trip and after debate over modern or not, I decided to bring it home and clean it up. A lot of modern bones here look older than are and I am not very versed in Pleistocene material so I figured I would post it here and see what everyone thinks! Thanks! 

@non-remanié @Trevor @bucky @shajzer64

 

 

[bucky]

Bovine occipital bone. Looks like it had horns.

[non-remanié]

Nice meeting you guys, but boy do I wish  I would have been there when you found this!  I guess we all walked right over it on the way in, so it sure goes to prove that old adage again.  

[frankh8147]

10 minutes ago, non-remanié said:

Nice meeting you guys, but boy do I wish  I would have been there when you found this!  I guess we all walked right over it on the way in, so it sure goes to prove that old adage again.  

It was great meeting you too! This was mostly in the water - I thought it was a lot smaller than it is when I picked it up. Really caught us by surprise.

[frankh8147]

Here are two more pictures.

[coled18]

I think it is from a cow. Bison would be possible, but I am not sure if there are Bison fossils to be found in your area of NJ. 

[Rockwood]

Sounds like an opportunity to tune up the old snozz, by putting a flame to it and checking for stink.

[frankh8147]

12 hours ago, coled18 said:

I think it is from a cow. Bison would be possible, but I am not sure if there are Bison fossils to be found in your area of NJ. 

That could be where this gets tricky. I was told it matches the preservation of Pleistocene specimens from the area but whether or not bison was in New Jersey is debated. Possible specimens (mostly teeth) usually get ID's as colonial cow. It did pass the burn test but these streams mineralize bone quickly here.

[Harry Pristis]

 

 

There is some interesting data in this table:

 

 

[non-remanié]

This doesnt look like the type of surficial iron deposition that quickly happens to modern bones that have been in the water.   Dave Parris may want to carbon date it to find out for sure.       

 

[frankh8147]

13 hours ago, non-remanié said:

This doesnt look like the type of surficial iron deposition that quickly happens to modern bones that have been in the water.   Dave Parris may want to carbon date it to find out for sure.       

 

I'll let him know later today that I have this. I agree that it looks different from the modern bones I am accustomed to finding there. Thanks for your help on this one Steve; if I was at all confident it was Pleistocene, I would have walked back to show you this!

[jpevahouse]

I'm a skeptic as to whether bison ever roamed the wooded Pleistocene terrain of New Jersey. The animals which did are generously represented in collections but bison, I doubt. My logic is bison are herd animals. Where their remains are found there they are usually found in quantity. Maybe it's possible a lone bison occasionally wandered across the Delaware River and died in NJ? Same with horses, no fossil I've seen which would convince me horses roamed NJ before the modern era.

Cow bones are by nature plentiful, similar to bison and the most logical assumption.

[Carl]

19 hours ago, jpevahouse said:

I'm a skeptic as to whether bison ever roamed the wooded Pleistocene terrain of New Jersey. The animals which did are generously represented in collections but bison, I doubt. My logic is bison are herd animals. Where their remains are found there they are usually found in quantity. Maybe it's possible a lone bison occasionally wandered across the Delaware River and died in NJ? Same with horses, no fossil I've seen which would convince me horses roamed NJ before the modern era.

Cow bones are by nature plentiful, similar to bison and the most logical assumption.

I have a single horse molar from Big Brook that has consistently been IDed as a non-caballus Equus, i.e., it's Pleistocene. And I know I've heard of one record of Cormohipparion in NJ.

[jpevahouse]

On 10/25/2017 at 11:58 AM, Carl said:

I have a single horse molar from Big Brook that has consistently been IDed as a non-caballus Equus, i.e., it's Pleistocene. And I know I've heard of one record of Cormohipparion in NJ.

Big Brook is probably the worse place I know of to assess Pleistocene fauna in NJ. I say this because over the years I have found an abundance of historic era animal bones well aged with that dark patina. I would not be surprised to find a horse tooth at Big Brook. However, the overall picture of horse fossils in NJ does not support that horses populated NJ during the Pleistocene era.  Because they are herd animals where horse fossils are found generally they are found consistently and often abundantly.

[Carl]

14 minutes ago, jpevahouse said:

Big Brook is probably the worse place I know of to assess Pleistocene fauna in NJ. I say this because over the years I have found an abundance of historic era animal bones well aged with that dark patina. I would not be surprised to find a horse tooth at Big Brook. However, the overall picture of horse fossils in NJ does not support that horses populated NJ during the Pleistocene era.  Because they are herd animals where horse fossils are found generally they are found consistently and often abundantly.

When I found the tooth, I felt pretty sure it would just wind up being a modern horse. I'm well aware of the modern animals that throw their confounding bones into Big Brook to complicate our hunts. But I've shown the tooth to at least 3 fossil horse experts without telling them what the others had said and they all confidently stated that it is a non-caballus Equus tooth. And horse teeth aside, there should be no doubts about Pleistocenity of the Cervalces,  caribou, mastodon, giant ground sloth, and giant beaver material that has turned up at Big Brook and the nearby brooks.

 

All I could find about the Cormohipparion tooth was an article from the Asbury Park Press, 15 March 2001, stating "Just recently, a tooth from the extinct horse Cormohipparion was discovered in Big Brook the first Pliocene fossil of any vertebrate animal ever reported from N.J., Gallagher said." So the fact that it seems to have been Pliocene (which would be seriously odd) plus the type of reference it was found in make it irrelevant for our current discussion, even though Gallagher is a trustworthy source.

 

Attached is the state of NJ Pleistocene horses in 1989.

[erose]

5 hours ago, jpevahouse said:

Big Brook is probably the worse place I know of to assess Pleistocene fauna in NJ. I say this because over the years I have found an abundance of historic era animal bones well aged with that dark patina. I would not be surprised to find a horse tooth at Big Brook. However, the overall picture of horse fossils in NJ does not support that horses populated NJ during the Pleistocene era.  Because they are herd animals where horse fossils are found generally they are found consistently and often abundantly.

Not sure if your logic actually plays out regarding herd animals. Bison and horse are more often found as individual specimens than not here in Texas.  I have a caribou antler from Big Brook and it was a single find. They certainly are herd animals. The fossil record is full of one-offs.