# What kind of animal could this bone have come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381 "2025-05-14T23:33:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/21 "2025-05-15T03:41:30Z")
Yes - handled many similar in my time. Definitely large mammal longbone - sectioned by sawing on both faces. You’d assume cow, but depending on location could be horse, deer, camel, prob too big for sheep. You’d need a reliable reference specimen to match the detail of the bone surface to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/22 "2025-05-15T03:52:09Z")
Too big for deer or sheep. Theoretically it could be elk or bison or other large game but far more likely cattle. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/23 "2025-05-15T04:17:05Z")
There’s, oddly, a bunch of Bison or Buffalo-Beef dog treats available. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/24 "2025-05-15T13:03:32Z")
When I was about 5, 6 years old my parents used to take me to boring political meetings (no money for a baby-sitter I guess), the meetings were right next to an empty lot full of “wild” vegetation and the kind of stuff that ends up in such places (but relatively clean, or my parents would’ve not let me play there). Budding paleontologist that I was I used to search for (and find) bones there. Whenever I found one I would excitedly run to my parents to ask them to identify it, hoping for Dinosaur, or at least Mammoth but the answer was invariably the same: Cow “Asados” being an absolutely indispensable part of political meetings in Argentina that was not surprise, except for little dinosaur-crazed boys. Today all that experience finally paid off, when I saw that picture a small boyish voice in the back of my head said “that’s a caracú (marrow, by extension applied to that kind cow femur bone cut) bone” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/25 "2025-05-15T15:18:21Z")
I think it’s appropriate for a youthful paleontologist to be rendering his opinion on a thread by @Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/26 "2025-05-15T15:28:39Z")
Wouldn’t a Pithecanthropus lay more in the sphere of anthropology? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/27 "2025-05-15T16:19:41Z")
As a matter of technical English terminology, sure. As a matter of study of remnants of extinct species, it still fits. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/28 "2025-05-15T16:58:18Z")
The OP represents the _Spectre of Pithecanthropus_, which could be interpreted many ways. Supernaturalism or philosophy might be more appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/29 "2025-05-15T17:04:16Z")
My freezer is full of these. Cow femur bones cut up and sold to dog owners. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2025, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381/30 "2025-05-15T17:36:13Z")
There’s a shop around here that sells them filled with a peanut-butter-type substance as dog treats. My dog goes nuts for them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-animal-could-this-bone-have-come-from/1018381.md?page=1)