#bone identification

[seabeck]

Found a skull yesterday I can't ID. I'm pretty certain it's not deer. The bone is too dense/thick and the eye sockets look off for deer

[thiss-too-shall-pass]

This is the finale to the deer project (at least until I get her home)

After a peroxide bath last night she’s ready to come home with me!! I want to take some soap and peroxide to the teeth to see if I can improve the discoloration? Otherwise she’s very intact and not too greasy :3

I made a set of all of the ribs to pack and bring home, they’ll probably go on my rosary mobile as wind chimes

Lastly her hip was shattered at the top which makes me think the car that hit her did so on the back end, since the front is completely intact while this area shows signs of severe damage :(

Her radius is stinky still bc it has water in the marrow channel. It is in toilet paper jail

Super excited to add my first deer skull to my collection

OH AND THIS IS SUCH AN IMPROVEMENT AFTER THE BACTERIA. ANAEROBIC BACTERIA MY NIGHTMARE IS OVER!!!

[thatboneyfella]

I found this skull near a shed under a bush next to a few scraps of dusty matted fur. It seemed to be in pretty good condition.

At first I thought it was a canine skull of some sort, but after looking up pictures I wonder if it’s closer in shape to an American badger skull, although maybe a raccoon skull? Maybe five inches long? I’m not sure. What do you think?

hello! i think you're spot on. american badgers and racoons are very hard to distinguish, i cant say for certain but i would guess this is probably a raccoon. the zygomatic arch comes to a sharp point at the natural conclusion of the orbital, rather than being in the middle or back end which is typically more of a feature found in badgers in general. the eye sockets also dont appear to be terribly elongated. the lacrimal duct is pronounced (which is that hole by the front of the eye socket) which is found in several placental mammals & marsupials however racoons it tends to be more of a upside down triangle shape and that seems to match up.

like i said i cant be absolutely certain but my guess is its a raccoon as well. :)

[centennialcicada]

Hello i have bones. If anyone helps identify what fish this is i will send you 2 and a half smooches please and thank you :)

[hawksonganimations]

Does anyone know what bone this is? I think it's from an nz fur seal because my father found the carcass of one near where I found it a little while ago and there are no other animals of the same size in the area but I have no clue what part of the body it might be

[skeletalraccoon]

can anyone help me ID this jawbone?

so my mom and stepdad found this jawbone in the woods of their property, they’re planning on giving it to me. i’m still new to all of this so i’m not great at ID’ing bones, so i figured i would ask here for some help. i’m thinking it’s a raccoon?

[bonezaw]

Shoutout to these unidentified teeth found in my mother's jewelry box. Nobody in my family (including my mom) knows where they came from, but they appear to be cat teeth?

[ghostsbones]

need help identifying a bird skull i found in south-east england

i think it's a crow but I've got absolutely no experience in identifying bird bones

photos were taken on a cd case for some kind of size reference

the skull measures roughly 11.5cm from tip of beak to base of skull

@dread-doughnuts

[foolishfuuck]

bone soup; phase one

[arcanehackist]

If I had a nickel for every time I had to tell someone posting in the r/BoneID subreddit that they needed to call the cops I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[boneidentification]

Hello everyone! I want to sincerely apologize for dropping off the face of the earth, life has taken over and its finally time to find someone to help take over identification duties. Please email me at boneidentification@gmail.com if you are an active Tumblr user, avid and knowledgeable bone enthusiast, and interested in joining me! I look forward to hearing from you!

[thatboneyfella]

best places to find ethically sourced bones-

railroad tracks:

- be careful doing this, parts of these (at least in my area) are considered private property, however parts are not, and it can be difficult to tell which parts are and which are not. look out for signs. also dangerous. stay off to the sides at all times and do NOT cross the tracks, for any reason, unless at an assigned crossing- during the allotted time period. trains will not stop for you, they are not able to do that- and sometimes they may not even see you. be constantly looking over your shoulder and read up more on railroad safety. however- many animals get caught in the tracks and are hit by trains, or simply their bones can be found by the side of the tracks, so this makes it quite a great place to find many bones.

near bodies of water:

-my favourite body of water is along the riverside. this is a great place to find many fish bones, as well as the bones of the animals who come to find the fish. fisherman also may discard fish off on the riverside if they are not happy with what they have caught. just be careful not to be in a metropark! overall not super dangerous, and a great place to find bones, but limited on the types youll find.

rubbish piles:

-this one typically finds racoons, opossums, rats, mice, dogs, cats, and other animals of the sort. but that gives a pretty good range. be careful of the live animals youre bound to find rummaging round in there though. you can usually find whole skeletons, and theyre usually already cleaned really well (of the flesh) because of the, again, live animals. clean them extra well because of the diseases these animals carry while being in these environments. overall, another excellent option for different varieties of bones.

state parks:

-this one is iffy, it depends entirely on which state park, and what the individual rules are. some state parks allow you to scavenge things like mushrooms, and hunt, which doesn't explicitly state, but obviously would include bones. however some do not. but if they do, take full advantage of it, its an incredible opportunity, and even take advantage of all being able to use the hunters at your disposal (for information only of course), which brings me to the last location on my list.

dumping sites:

-my personal favourite, dumping sites are where hunters discard parts/carcasses they do not have need or want for. bones are typically among these parts, thus making it peak scavenging grounds for anyone looking for bones! one downside however is that they can be quite tricky to find, and can typically only be found by actually asking around a group of hunters to find out which dumping site the majority of them use. but when you find one oh boy, its all worth it, so many different types of bones, so many different animals, so many different sizes, its everything you could ever want, or ask for. so take the chance and ask around. its worth it. trust me.

next up; fossils?

[thebonescavenger]

found in the pacific! what is it

around 7 by 5-ish but it’s hard to tell since a lot is worn away

[smalltowngothica]

hey tumblr, does anyone know what animal these bones might be from? i was gifted these from a friend a loooong time ago and i just cant remember what they said it was.

[hylianengineer]

*vibrating with glee*

Idaho Virtual Museum Osteology collection!!!! This is essentially a bone reference collection digitized in ridiculous amounts of detail! They have a bunch of different fish species with photos of EVERY. SINGLE. BONE. in the whole skeleton! From half a dozen angles! Also mammals and birds and reptiles but HOLY SHIT THE FISH! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find online reference photos of bones in this level of detail? It's pretty doable for mammals, a pain in the ass for everything else, but fish? Even my university's in-person zooarchaeological reference collection barely has any fish!

[wolftheghost]

tw animal bones and animal death!

attention vultures of tumblr and all alike, i found a bone at a farm near me and i reckon it's a rabbit's rib and that the rabbit in question was victim to fox as the bone is quite splintered

(im in southeast england and the farm in question has an abundance of rabbits and foxes and ive found dead rabbits there before)

before cleaning, there was a layer of brown on it that i think is leftover flesh, going off of my experience eating ribs

toothbrush for scale :3

am i right in my guess or does anyone have any other theories?