is this a prehistoric animal bone "help"

[buildsthefire]

I wouldn't bother taking them to a vet, they're not experts, particularly in non-domesticated species.  Funnily enough, they spend more time looking at living dogs and cats, not skeletons.   Locate the most reputable University or museum in your area, and get it checked there.  Don't take it to anywhere that doesn't have an expert in natural history (and by expert, I mean properly qualified with a degree and years of experience), otherwise you're going to end up with educated guesses, or people saying "WOW!  I've never ever ever seen one of these!  Must be MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD!!!!!" haha.

[Lunch]

It appears to be the cervical vertebrae of a horse (the neck). Are they still attached to each other? If there is any cartilage keeping them attached to each other, then they aren't very old. Do they have any weight to them? Almost all bones get heavier over very long periods of time. Was that tooth found with or near the bones? That appears to be a horse tooth. It does look like it has some age to it. Hard to tell from the photo, could be a few to several thousand years old.
Very cool finds. I would carefully clean them and take them to a museum of natural history and ask the curator. Keep us posted.
Lance

[painshill]

Lunch wrote:

It appears to be the cervical vertebrae of a horse (the neck). Are they still attached to each other? If there is any cartilage keeping them attached to each other, then they aren't very old. Do they have any weight to them? Almost all bones get heavier over very long periods of time. Was that tooth found with or near the bones? That appears to be a horse tooth. It does look like it has some age to it. Hard to tell from the photo, could be a few to several thousand years old.
Very cool finds. I would carefully clean them and take them to a museum of natural history and ask the curator. Keep us posted.
Lance

  I agree. Horse cervicals. Here’s the cervical section of a horse vertebral column:

Image from FCIT

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart

But, horses in America were hunted to extinction 10,000 – 12,000 years ago and not reintroduced until 1519 (by Cortes via Mexico) and in 1539/40 (by de Soto via Florida). So, it couldn’t be “a few to several thousand” years old. It’s either at least 10,000 years old or modern... but nothing in between. I would suggest probably modern and no earlier than mid-18th Century. Horses were not widespread until then.
Painshill