Animal bone?

[Benji]

Hey all....found this bone yesterday and looked too big not to pick it up and find out what it belonged to...was wondering if anyone had idea of what kind of animal....cow? Looks to big for deer and not sure cow either....if so pretty big cow....it was difficult to get the pictures to scale for the post...if you request other angles please ask....its about a foot long but as you can see is broke...too me it looks like part of a leg and I may have the bottom portion beginning at knee....hopefully someone here has more knowledge on bones as I have none

[painshill]

I would say it’s the proximal end of a bison femur (the part of the thigh bone that locates with the pelvis to form the hip joint).

Apart from the size, there are a few other diagnostics. The “ball” at the end (known as the femoral head) has a slight but pronounced lip which isn’t usually seen in cattle but is a feature for bison. The neck (known as the femoral neck) leading directly to that ball is very broad and stout -almost as wide as the ball itself - which is a bison characteristic. In cattle it’s somewhat narrower. Finally, although broken, the curved projection to the side of the ball (known as the trochanter major) is relatively narrow, whereas in cattle it's relatively massive.

[Benji]

Interesting....thank you for your feedback....I just read that bison were extinct in Tennessee as late as 1823. I knew this had to be too big of a bone for cow or deer

[CRDX]

This is really really cool.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Man, that’s kewl !

[SurfaceHunter]

That’s something cool to find Benji

[Benji]

Thanks surface....I thought so as well.....we got a little rain earlier this week...I might go out this weekend to see what I can find

[SurfaceHunter]

I got just enough to mow the yard. Nothing to heavy but it gave the bushes a drink

[Cecilia]

So very cool. Handy-dandy tool for something, probably, after some gooood eatin’.....
Read somewhere knee caps used as scrappers.