So I found a bison skull. Now what?

[nodakian]

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe just a damn cow.

It may be a cow, but it looks a lot like this bison skull, too.

 

[WCB]

Oh man, I can wait until I have 'arrived' and I'll look back at this pivotal moment in my life in a thoughtful and bemused manner.

To your second point, I often think "oh man, nobody has EVER been here before". Then you find something like this and obviously someone was there. And they were bow hunting. Or defending their life, who knows. And don't worry, I've sprinkled several broadheads throughout the mountains of Colorado as I have learned to bow hunt these last few years.

Yeah most the time when I think I'm somewhere no one has been there is a empty bear bottle or a pile of TP.

 

[ClearCreek]

I would take it to age paleontologist and have them look at it to me I thought it was a cow skull. If it’s a bison skull it could be 50 years old 500 years old 50,000 years old

I don't think the skull in question is 50,000 years old as the bison that occurred during that period were Bison antiquus. The antiquus variety had a much larger horn core diameter and a much wider horn core tip to tip spread, and went extinct about 10,000 years ago.

Ancient bison varieties looked more like long horn cattle and as time progressed the horns became smaller and smaller, lending us the current form; Bos bison, todays modern day bison variety.

ClearCreek

 

[commandoNate]

Pretty neat. My brother found a Buffalo skull at 11,000 ft whiles fighting a fire few years ago. I don’t remember all the details, but The Denver natural history musuem now has the skull. They shed it at some age and also said it was the highest elevation a bison skull had been found.

Did he give it to them to display or did they take in trade for giving him some more info on it?

 

[justin davis]

Did he give it to them to display or did they take in trade for giving him some more info on it?

I don’t remember the details, but The museum took it from the Forest Service people. It was an “artifact.” So illegal to pick up in public land. But anyways they said it was around 150 years old. My brother kept a jaw bone and gave it to me lol

 

[Jethro6x6]

Yea, I've heard that. Leave it for the next generation. Maybe I'll take it back there someday. Like when I'm 60 and draw that tag again.

60 comes much faster than one imagines,,,, trust me on that,,lol

 

[LongWayAround]

Cool finds.

I have two bison skulls from northwest Nebraska that are sitting in my garage. They're both basically from the eye sockets up. I don't really want to set them in the house and am not sure what to do with them either.

 

[commandoNate]

Man, just looking at the size scale of those pics you both posted above that makes me think this is bovine. Mine doesn't seem to be nearly that big. I contacted the University of Colorado museum and they forwarded my photos to a somethingologist and said I should hear from them within a couple weeks about if they are interested in looking at them. Will report back.

 

[Rokbar]

Clean the skull up gently, stick the stone point in the hole at the skull plate, and put it on the mantle. Swear up and down that's how you found it. It will make a great conversation piece.

 

[fatlander]

This is really cool. Wonder if a grizzly buried it before they were extirpated from CO.


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[CRJR45]

So , you went out west and got a little head , cool !

 

[commandoNate]

So , you went out west and got a little head , cool !

Haha. Wasn’t the only head I got in September.

 

[bigv]

A fella in my local area owns/farms land. Part of a slough dried up a bit. He found a buffalo skull where water had been for years. Didn't think much about it until he hound an arrow head with it. So being the dakotas, just assumed it was from maybe couple of hundred years ago. Sioux Indians etc. But he sent it to the state school for it to be examined. Turns out it was borderline prehistoric.

 

[commandoNate]

A fella in my local area owns/farms land. Part of a slough dried up a bit. He found a buffalo skull where water had been for years. Didn't think much about it until he hound an arrow head with it. So being the dakotas, just assumed it was from maybe couple of hundred years ago. Sioux Indians etc. But he sent it to the state school for it to be examined. Turns out it was borderline prehistoric.

Damn, thats cool! Im going to meet with someone at the local state school after Thanksgiving to have this examined and hopefully learn more about it. They seemed to be more interested in the stone point than the bison skull. They were also pretty excited about my having documented the locations of the finds. I.E. OnX waypoints with lat & long.

 

[kfili]

Damn, thats cool! Im going to meet with someone at the local state school after Thanksgiving to have this examined and hopefully learn more about it. They seemed to be more interested in the stone point than the bison skull. They were also pretty excited about my having documented the locations of the finds. I.E. OnX waypoints with lat & long.

oh great- burning up another spot!
The stone point is an awesome find I have yet to come across one- but have donated a few modern equivalents.

 

[bigv]

Damn, thats cool! Im going to meet with someone at the local state school after Thanksgiving to have this examined and hopefully learn more about it. They seemed to be more interested in the stone point than the bison skull. They were also pretty excited about my having documented the locations of the finds. I.E. OnX waypoints with lat & long.

Yeah I got to hold it. It was partial like yours if I remember correctly. But to me it looked like it was just a regular american bison skull. I wouldn't have guessed it was of prehistoric age. So never know with yours. I think they were able to tell that because of the arrowhead found with it. They were able to date that by the style and material....I think? And being found with the skull, they can date/assume it is same age. So be sure to show them your arrowhead too.

 

[commandoNate]

oh great- burning up another spot!
The stone point is an awesome find I have yet to come across one- but have donated a few modern equivalents.

Not sure how I’m burning a spot. I didn’t post the coordinates of the finds. Or the unit I was in. I don’t see the harm in sharing this with archeologists who are interested in where the items came from.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff that came from our family’s farm in Missouri, and some from my mom’s family’s place in southern Illinois. We used to find arrowheads, pottery shards and stone tools all the time.

 

[commandoNate]

Yeah I got to hold it. It was partial like yours if I remember correctly. But to me it looked like it was just a regular american bison skull. I wouldn't have guessed it was of prehistoric age. So never know with yours. I think they were able to tell that because of the arrowhead found with it. They were able to date that by the style and material....I think? And being found with the skull, they can date/assume it is same age. So be sure to show them your arrowhead too.

The arrowhead was found on the other side of a main valley, about 3.5 miles away. Separate incident, not found at the same location.

 

[ez_willie]

Found this in the bottom of a river, any chance it’s bison as well? Thanks

 

[highcountrymuley]

Found this while hunting. First pic is bison on right, then last year's cow elk skull, and bovine cow skull.