What kinda animal might this be ?

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Hunting yesterday I looked down and saw this on the forest floor , looks to be part of a lower jaw bone, Was wondering if anyone might know what kind of a little critter this was

 

[teej89]

 

[88man]

Beaver??

 

[Fullquiver]

Porcupine would be my guess..

 

[CUElk]

Not sure. But if it was a groundhog, it's gonna be a long winter.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Probably a young porcupine. It would be strange for a beaver that small to be on dry land. Even stranger that some critter wouldn't crunch it up. If it was full of quills that would explain it. Also doubt a muskrat would be running around in the forest.

 

[gouch]

Given the country I assume you found it in, I'm going to say Mountain Beaver

 

[MarvB]

Porky


Given your location that’d be my guess... other than that I might have gone for possum?

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

Thanks for all the replies, there was a small creek some 50 yards away , possum, porky, or beaver seem to be the likely suspects

 

[huronmtns]

Opossum do not have rodent type teeth. I think we can rule that one out.

 

[Bambistew]

I'm guessing porky. Doesn't look robust enough, and the front tooth/jaw angle looks too shallow to be a beaver. The enamel on the front of the teeth also tends to be really yellow/brown on beavers even the younger ones. Its been a long time since I handled many beaver skulls, but I used to clean about 30-40 a month.

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Rodent of some sort. Not an opossum. They aren't rodents.

 

[huronmtns]

I'm guessing porky. Doesn't look robust enough, and the front tooth/jaw angle looks too shallow to be a beaver. The enamel on the front of the teeth also tends to be really yellow/brown on beavers even the younger ones. Its been a long time since I handled many beaver skulls, but I used to clean about 30-40 a month.

I'm with you on your guess. Every thing you point out is what I am seeing too. Beaver teeth seem to be wider than what is pictured.
The gum line on the molar and height of the molar teeth above the jaw bone line make this animal look older because of tooth wear. The size of the jaw pictured (compared to the person's finger for scale) that is holding it looks about the size of a 1st year age class of beaver. I don't think we would see that much wear on a young beaver. Adult porcupines have very small heads compared to adult beaver. To me it just seems to be more pointing that it is a porcupine.

 

[Birddog916]

NICE BEAVER!

 

[406LIFE]

Skull Science

Animal skulls and jawbones found in the woods leave clues to identification.

www.science-scene.org

You can find a dichotomous key for just about everything out there. Answer yes or no questions to find out what you have. Just google "dichotomous key X".

 

[ibehuntin]

Dental formula for the upper matches to porky.

 

[Pucky Freak]

whale penis

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

whale penis

that was awesome !
Let’s reminisce of last summer

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

If it is a porcupine I’ve never seen one in the Oregon coast range, I’ve seen everything else that everyone has mentioned not saying they don’t live out there but it would be the rarest of all the freaking things to randomly stumble across out hunting and running around in our mountains

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

NICE BEAVER!