Another animal bones thread!

Now that could be the jaw bone of almost any animal, besides we need a reference (like having a quarter next to it) to really see how big it is

We need scale.

Paula

I know that, but I don't have any pictures that show the size well. I was hoping my guess that it was a possum would have helped you with the size, because I have no way of getting another picture. [:@] This is why I'm having so much trouble figuring out what it is. [&:]
I've eliminated, due to the teeth, most of the animals I was originally guessing at, so I'm thinking it's either possum or some other small mammal I just haven't thought of yet.

Whoo!
I just did some digging through the pics, and amongst the later snapshots of bird bones (this darn camera tends to rearrange the order of the pictures I take) I found one that has some fairly standard-sized objects in it (not just bits of stick), along with some more teeth.
Do the oak leaf and the acorn caps help?

Looking over the pictures again, there are a LOT of bones. [sm=lol.gif]
It looks like a mini-massacre. [sm=eek.gif] There's definitely more than one animal in there, because I found some bird bones and feather clumps as well.
 

You know, I think what you found was a bone pile. I don't know where you live, but coyotes (I guess also other carnivores, but I know about the coyotes) have places where they take their kill. They're called (at least here in rural, PA) bone piles. So you'll find cats, squirrel, rabbit, bird, whathaveyou in these piles.

Pretty cool.
Paula

ORIGINAL: paulaedwina

You know, I think what you found was a bone pile. I don't know where you live, but coyotes (I guess also other carnivores, but I know about the coyotes) have places where they take their kill. They're called (at least here in rural, PA) bone piles. So you'll find cats, squirrel, rabbit, bird, whathaveyou in these piles.

Pretty cool.
Paula

 
Curious...  Coyotes don't eat the bones?

I don't know if the area had any coyotes, but there would have been foxes.
The bones were spread out over a fairly large area. A clump of tail feathers under a tree (beautiful feathers by the way; no idea what they were from either), down feathers over here, a breastbone by a log, and then in the more wooded area by the shore, the big pile of mammal bones.
There were even some bird feathers/bones out by the parking lot.
SOMETHING that hunts definitely must have lived around there. [sm=lol.gif]
 
Any clues yet as to what those teeth belonged to? []

Probably the great marrow bones, but probably not most of them. Ergo the bone pile.

Paula

ok now is the time that everyone finds out my weird bone collecting hobby..... and i also have a weird fascination with forensic science..
I kinda wish you have tossed a quarter or penny down beside them.
i couldnt get a real good scale on them.
The first and second jaw bone pictures arent related (i.e. the other side of the mandible) one is some kind herbivore and the other some kind of omnivore.
Looking at the second picture and comparing it to one of raccoon skulls it looks like a match. again i cant tell for sure because of the scale. my raccoon has three molars in the back before the teeth turn into the meat shearing kind... erm.. premolars i guess they're called.http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29290317/?qo=68&q=by%3Abluecoyote&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps
 i dont have a way to upload pictures right now (again..) so here is an old one. should give some idea.

the second jaw bone looks like a deer's jaw bone. i had a complete deer skull but Cindi found it and crunched it to pieces.
on second thought maybe not...http://www.vidisco.com/images/med/app-ndt-Deer-Jaw.jpg
however i dont know if it varies from species to species, because it looks similar to a white tail deer's jaw.
http://www.skullsunlimited.com/graphics/Whitetail_Doe.jpg

its also not a possum's jaw.. now is it cat or dog...... so i have told you what it isnt lol
i thought maybe some kind of herbivore but the hinge part isnt matching up to anything others, it looks like it has been gnawed on a bit... just the teeth match some animals i've compared it to.
it does resemble a pig's jaw bone in some areas but not in others...http://jawresearch.ca/myimages/horlat.jpg
sooooo... i give up. i'd have to see it in person and the other bones around it to get a better idea.
at least we know what it isnt []

I had a feeling they might not be the same animal... I was just hoping someone would prove me wrong.  [&:]
I fear I didn't take the pictures with the aim of identifying the bones, so there's not much to compare size to in the background.
I'll see if I can find some better pics of the surrounding bones.

Hm... well, here's a picture of pretty much the whole pile:
 

I've got plenty of closer-up pictures of the individual bones if you need them, but this might help you get a feel for their size in relation to one another at least.

A note... that first jawbone was missing about four teeth in front, in case it's not clear in the picture. So, the teeth would have gone almost to the edge.