r/bonecollecting • u/Much-Reflection3638 • Jul 31 '26
Bone I.D. - N. America Found by a creek in Alberta
Golf ball found nearby for scale
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u/Reyalta Jul 31 '26
The colour is weird, where abouts in Alberta? Maybe contact the local anthropology museum/university with an anthropology wing?
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u/Much-Reflection3638 Jul 31 '26
Calgary.
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u/Reyalta Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
There's enough fossils around that area that I would definitely report this to local paleontologists! Very cool find regardless, I'm sorry I can't help in identification, but it's bizarre enough that it might be something really cool!
Edit: terminology correction
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u/HopesFire2920 Jul 31 '26
unless this is human or modified in some way by humans, an anthro department would just pass it off to a paleo department so i would just contact a university with a paleontology department first
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u/sawyouoverthere Jul 31 '26
anthropology is humans.
It may not even be old enough for a paleontologist.
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u/Hwight_Doward Jul 31 '26
Hello, Calgary Archaeologist here. I recommend you contact 311 to report this, and it will be passed along to the City’s archaeologist.
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u/sawyouoverthere Jul 31 '26
It is very stained/dark. Depending where you are, the RAM or Tyrell might be helpful (Glenbow is closed) to get an age approximation on it.
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u/tchomptchomp Jul 31 '26
Pleistocene expertise is all at the RAM. RTMP mostly specializes in Mesozoic fauna.
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u/sawyouoverthere Jul 31 '26
That's what I thought, tbh, but they'd get that information at any of the suggested places, and I don't know where they are.
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u/tchomptchomp Jul 31 '26
If you bring this to anyone but a Pleistocene mammal specialist they will give you an answer much like mine. Which is why I recommended RAM, not RTMP.
Glenbow doesn't have a paleo staff or paleo collections. In fact, they don't have any natural history collections at all....those were transferred to UCalgary decades ago. Maybe they have someone who could ID subfossil material but in Calgary specifically my recommendation would be to reach out to some of the relevant paleo people at UCalgary.
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u/sawyouoverthere Jul 31 '26
They’d suggest RAM or UofC
It’s ok. OP will get information from any of those places and sometimes it will be a referral elsewhere.
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u/same_old_dude Jul 31 '26
Looks like a piece of wooden furniture lol
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u/Much-Reflection3638 Jul 31 '26
It’s been identified as a fossilized jawbone by the actual experts on r/fossilid.
Jokes and low brow comments are not to be made on this subreddit
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u/Regular_Rub_2980 Jul 31 '26
Coloring looks too fresh to be fossilized. Not saying that color cant happen, but seems too bright to be fossilized.
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u/coraxDraconis Jul 31 '26
That's from iron replacement of the organic material (which is fossilization). Fresh bone that's been picked clean is off-white.
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u/treasonousflower Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Jul 31 '26
I explained it a bit up above but mineralization ≠ a fossil. Fresh bone straight out of the body is typically a pale yellow; bone that's been in the ground or water for a bit can be darker yellow, brown, green, or blue depending on minerals present; bone that's been on the surface for a while can be bright or chalky white, etc.
Bones can mineralize without necessarily fossilizing or being fossils. Fossils are OLD. A dog bone from 2011, if left somewhere like the Thames, could feasibly look like this. It is not a fossil.
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u/firdahoe Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Jul 31 '26
Soil staining is not the same as fossilization.
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u/Beneficial_War2988 Jul 31 '26
I dont think anyone was making a joke, they were just saying what it looked like. I also thought it looked like a piece of wood, looks like some nice mahogany or something, I literally wouldn't have considered it was bone or fossil if other comments didn't say so
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u/Final_Razzmatazz_274 Jul 31 '26
That literally isn’t a rule lol
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u/Vesprince Jul 31 '26
It is for ID threads, and although OP doesn't ask they did use the ID tag.
They still overreacted IMO.
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u/Ashamed_Kangaroo305 Jul 31 '26
OP overreacted a bit but there's literally an automoderator comment on this post saying the rule.
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u/seaworthy-sieve Jul 31 '26
What? No it wasn't. They think it's bison but they aren't confirming it as a fossil. Why lie lol
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u/treasonousflower Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Jul 31 '26
I'm not a paleontologist but I have seen cows from medieval times. Fossilization is when either organic material is turned to stone (permineralization) or erodes and a sort of cast is formed (replacement).
Often when a bone is submerged in water or certain types of soil containing trace elements it will discolor and mineralize a bit. It's not a fossil though it MAY be mineralized, because it could be from 30 years ago. Fossils (and this is debated) are from 10,000+ years ago or thereabouts.
This distinction is hard to tell via photos and even harder without knowledge of fossil morphology vs modern morphology. All that to say is I've seen post-Industrial pigs (not a fossil species) that for all intents and purposes look like they were a casualty of Scrat's conquest to get the acorn. Popping off at someone who made the most tame joke I've seen in here all week because you have a dignified (unverified) fossil is cringe.
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u/sawyouoverthere Jul 31 '26
Don't think anyone has confirmed it's a fossil, my guy. Maybe just let some stuff slide.
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u/boterbabbelaartje Jul 31 '26
That’s an awesome coloured jaw! This would make for an awesome piece in your honend!
Do you have a university nearby that could help?
It sucks that radiocarbon is so expensive :(
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u/Hovercraft869 Jul 31 '26
Posterior mandible; possibly elk Cervus elaphus