I found this bone in a little county park in Pennsylvania, near a stream. The pix (linked to the album so you can just click through in that tab) aren’t the greatest, but it’s hard to photograph. The first three show it from three different angles, and the fourth is so you can get a sense of how those holes go through.
Any animal anatomists out there? What bone is it, and from what kind of animal?
Definitely mammalian. It has two facets for articulating with the skull. Reptiles and birds (which are technically also reptiles) have only a single articulation.
Based on the measuring tape, it’s huge. Just on size, my first guess would be a cow. The image I linked to is from a horse, and it doesn’t seem to match that exactly. I think it’s too big for deer or a dog.
That’s still huge. The atlas is a single cervical vertebra. I think 4" would make it a little over twice the size of a human cervical vertebra, and the atlas is the smallest.
Deer would make sense – there are definitely deer in the area. Also sheep in the field across the road, but I don’t see how a sheep atlas bone would make it down to where I found it, even if they slaughtered the sheep on the spot.
Sheep still fall prey to coyotes and feral dogs, and some just up and die for no apparent reason. If it happens in a stretch of bad weather, scavengers could have it disassembled before the farmer even figures out what happened.
Colibri, this proves once again that you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to these matters. It is obviously a “face bone” from a very young Pug dog.
It’s definitely a bit banged up. There is one straight gash in it, though it’s not very deep.
As I said, though, I found this in a little park – no hunting there (though there are privately owned woods on the other side of the creek). Maybe someone field-dressed a deer? People walk their dogs along there, many of them offleash, so a dog could have gotten into some remains.
ETA: Oops, y’all have moved on to other theories. Never mind.