Wood or Antler???

[Scott Blackman]

My wife's Grandmother found this many...many years ago in a riverbed and gave this to me. It was found in the Central California mountain regions. it looks like wood on the top side (smooth). It is solid and hard as bone. Never seen the underside of an antler? Deer, Elk, Vine root, Alien??? Any idea?

 

[Richard Coers]

My vote is for wood. Any antler I have seen has a "button" on the end. The button has a bumpy ring around it and there is no hint of it here.

 

[Jamie Straw]

My vote is for wood. Any antler I have seen has a "button" on the end. The button has a bumpy ring around it and there is no hint of it here.

+1 for wood. Touching some hidden place with some sandpaper should seal the determination -- antler and wood smell quite different, methinks.

 

[Dean Center]

+2 for wood. Like Richard said.

 

[Bill Boehme]

My wife's Grandmother found this many...many years ago in a riverbed and gave this to me. It was found in the Central California mountain regions. it looks like wood on the top side (smooth). It is solid and hard as bone. Never seen the underside of an antler? Deer, Elk, Vine root, Alien??? Any idea?

I would say, none of the above. It appears to be part of a skull and the bony core of a horn minus its keratinous covering ... possibly mountain goat or bighorn sheep.

 

[Hugh]

I think I would agree that it is part of an animal skull.........but not an antlered animal.
Antlered animals...deer, elk.....grow their antlers new each year. The old one falls off. Antlers are made of bone material.
Horned animals...goats, sheep, antelope....have a boney stub on the skull that the horn grows over. American Antelope have modified hair that grows into a horn. Sheep and goats have material that is like a fingernail that grows into a horn.
My guess would be a domestic goat or domestic sheep skull......been out in the environment for awhile.
That would be my best guess.
Hugh

 

[Joe Greiner]

Not likely to be wood. Pulling stumps is one of my secondary "hobbies," and I've never seen that at the bottom of a tree. Usually many large and small separate roots. Bodacious grain pattern in the root ball.

Joe

 

[Bill Boehme]

Try a smell test. Cut off a tiny piece and touch it with a soldering iron.