Is there any truth to the "cow skull lying in the desert" trope?

[nearwildheaven]

Maybe this how some of them originated.

Beef from the wild west compared to today

Is it possible to estimate how the quality of beef from the mid 1800s was compared to today’s beef? The cattle (longhorn?) were range fed but I’m picturing sparse prairie grass, not lush green pastures. Then they walked 50 to 100 miles to market on cattle drives. Did they know to fatten them on corn before slaughter? Did they even have large quantities of corn back then? I think the many cuts of beef were well known by that time but was a porterhouse from 1875 as nicely marbled as a present da…