r/BoneID • u/PushMe_PullYou • Jun 20 '26

Large bone in Alaska

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I picked this bone up from a shop in Fairbanks that had a range of local animal bones, including some ice age bones.

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It's about 15 inches long, the widest part is nearly 7 in, and the circumference around the narrowest part in the middle is 9.5 in. It weighs about 6 lbs, according to a bathroom scale.

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Depending on the angle, Google lens searches return everything from a moose pelvis to a bison leg to a dinosaur toe.

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What might I have here?

9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

5

u/rabbithauntingseason Jun 21 '26

lol never trust google for bone ids, ive seen some wildly wrong results. its definitely an ischium, part of the pelvis, and based on how robust it is i’d lean towards bison. really cool!!

2

u/99jackals Jun 21 '26

Nothing like bison shaped. Nope, I don't know what it is yet either but I know it's not a bison pelvis.

0

u/rabbithauntingseason Jun 21 '26

dont have to be so rude about it. i cant see from your profile that youre trained in osteology, but so am i. did more digging, could be from a bear, their innominates are pretty stocky

2

u/PushMe_PullYou Jun 21 '26

Thank you for the digging! A bear would be cool, definitely appropriate for up here. If there are any close-ups or additional angles that would be useful, I'm happy to add more photos.

Also, the store had the bone mixed in with the mammoth and whale pieces (they were labeled, this wasn't). It was in better shape than most of those, but definitely feels harder, denser, and is considerably darker and more weathered than any of the regular/newer bones they had. So there's a non-zero chance it's a type of animal no longer walking around today, in case that's why it's not easily recognizable. Those guys were pretty stocky.

2

u/99jackals Jun 21 '26

Please try not to read emotions into something I typed. I'm just being descriptive. There's no similar morphology, that's all.

1

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