Jump to content

Bison Toe Bone?


Lizzlo

Recommended Posts

Hello! 

I recently came back from a trip to the Netherlands, and while beach combing in the North Sea, I found this bone. I've been really curious as to what it may be, and even joined this site in hopes of discovering what it may have belonged too. I believe it's a phalanx bone, possibly of a bison from the pleistocene? That's really just a guess based off of others' pictures, so please, any info you can give would be wonderful! Sorry I don't have a ruler on hand for proper measurements, but it is roughly 8 cm in length and 3 cm in width. I put the lighter there to maybe give an idea of size 

20190525_132013.jpg

20190525_131915.jpg

20190525_131908.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is a very nice toe bone and i’m going to say right off, I do not know for sure what it is, but until @Harry Pristis or one of the other guru’s answers, I wanted to walk you through my thinking on an ID. Harry has a lot of great pictures in his gallery and if you have not visited that, I would suggest you look at the “Bones” galley, it is very educational.

 

That being said, based on what he has posted, it does not look like a bison to me. The “profile” of the bone in the last picture and shape in the third picture looks very much like a deer. But of course it is much to big, especially wide, to be a whitetail/mule type deer. But there are other large deer like animals that may have been around that area such as moose or elk (admittedly. I am not totally up on what animals were running around the Dutch countryside in the Pleistocene).   Let’s see what others say. 

  • I found this Informative 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I agree with ClearLake.  The phalanx has cervid-like contours, particularly notable in the last image.  In the Caenozoic [Brit. sp.], I think there were 2 or 3 large cervids in Britain -- red deer, Irish elk, and Clacton fallow deer.  Some, or all, of these may have lived closer to Holland.

 

 

  • I found this Informative 1

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How exciting! Thank you ClearLake and Harry Pristis! I really appreciate your responses. I've looked through the photo album as suggested, and I see what you mean about the shapes. Thank you!

 

If there's any other info/pics I can give you to better understand which species it is, or exactly how old it may be, do let me know! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...