Mystery Skeleton

[Redthies]

My apprentice was out scouting for mule deer spots this spring and came across this skeleton in the bush of coastal southwest British Columbia. We have been trying to figure out what it belongs to. It is apparently about 4’ long, but I’m suspicious of the “tail”. It looks to me like it might be another section of spine from another animal?? The skull looks to me like a peccary pig, but we don’t have them here, and there are no shoulders or hips. The bones are way too big to be fish, although we have huge sturgeon here, and this was found near a large river. We have badgers, wolverines, bears, all types of ungulates etc etc. I have not been able to say for sure what this is. Any amateur palentologists out there?

[markiver54]

Very strange...looks almost like a large lizzard, like a Ghia?...don't know, but would like to! Please let us know if you find out James.

[Jdl447]

Looks like a possum. But I don’t know if you have any out west.

[Redthies]

That’s one of the things we considered, but the skull shape is quite different, and the jaw is quite a bit more squared off. Although that could be the camera angle? We do have the odd possum around where I live, but I’ve never seen one in that area. It’s about 100 miles from my house. Do they get that big?

[markiver54]

hmm...the mystery continues.

[Ojaileveraction]

One must consider the drying and shinking of the connective tissues.
The teeth alone say opossum.
They can get pretty big.

[RanchRoper]

Anything's possumble...

[Cofisher]

Dang RR. You make me laugh.

[markiver54]

Dang RR. You make me laugh.

I'm still laughing

[Redthies]

Anything's possumble...

Cheebuz...

[Redthies]

On further discussion over a couple of whisky sours tonight, it has come to light that there are a couple of pig farms in the area. Like around 10 miles away. That has me thinking it could be a pig? There are very few feral pigs in BC, but people claim to have seen the odd one over the years...

[ChefDuane]

Chupacabra. Definitely chupacabra.

[ESquared]

Pig is a good guess, but it doesn't jive with the mysterious "tail" that you rightly point out looks a little out of place (even for an opossum).

[Mags]

Ya, jaw line and spine, likely pig.

[Hobart]

Looks like a possum to me.

[CT_Shooter]

Welcome to the forum from CT, Hobart. Glad you joined the conversation. Tell us a bit about yourself in the "New Member Introduction" forum (http://henryrifleforums.com/viewforum.php?f=4).

Looks like a possum to me.

[Redthies]

Looks like a possum to me.

With a skull the size of a football, I’d hate to meet THAT possum in a dark alley!

Welcome to HRF Hobart!

[ESquared]

That's the first I'm hearing about its size. I'm leaning PIG.

[Mistered]

I had an interesting 'skeletal' experience last week.
I was near one of my shooting areas and was passing an old power line road that is also used for shooting and I saw what looked like a trash can at about the 100 yard point. Well it wasn't there before so I drove to it and when I got out I was overwhelmed by the smell of decaying flesh.
Well so here is a trash can on its side with a garbage bag inside - tied off - and the horrific smell....
Well I had to know what was inside so I got a stick and pulled the bag open and inside was a bloody and decaying rib cage! It was too big to be anything other than a deer and then it occurred to me bow season was on so someone's irresponsible disposal of a carcass.

[RanchRoper]

Not too far from us a lady has horses that always get out. Anyhow one got hit by a semi a few weeks ago and laid in the ditch for almost 2 weeks. Not good. Guess highway guys are not responsible to clean up privately owned animals. Owners responsibility. So finally a loader came but I hear it was gruesome...