Age of bison?

[tjfauber]

Hello! This is my first post. I'm from Nebraska and while out walking a creek I found what I believe is a bison.

It was about 6 foot down on the side of the bank of the creek. Could anyone please verify that it is a bison and age.

 

 

[Fossildude19]

Better pictures of the skull, preferably with some sort of measuring instrument would be needed.

 

Also, what county in Nebraska? That might help with an age range.

Burn test would let you know if it is modern cow. Hold a bit of bone to a flame, and see if it burns or gives off any kind of burnt hair smell.
That would indicate the presence of collagen, therefor not being mineralized/fossilized.

[tjfauber]

Thank you for responding.  It would be Gage county Nebraska. I did the burn test and it smells like burnt hair.

[ClearLake]

Very nice!  Looks like you have a lot of bones from it spaced along that layer (picture 2), and a bit of a jigsaw puzzle with the skull.  Some of the other bones may also be helpful in distinguishing bison from cow.

[Harry Pristis]

Welcome to the Forum!  This is very likely to be a cow, but see if you can find limb bones like metapodials, calcaneum, astragalus, etc.  These are dense and survive better than other bones.  And, there are easily discernible differences between bison and cow with these bones.

[CDiggs]

The comparative images in this publication might be of some use to you; https://archive.org/details/postcranialskele00olse/page/20/mode/2up

[tjfauber]

Thank you everyone for your help!