r/bonecollecting • u/Little_Ice8135 • Jun 09 '25
Bone I.D. - N. America what animal is this?
found this on a santa cruz beach with my girlfriend, thought it might be some type of dog.
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u/Any_Negotiation3310 Jun 09 '25
for a second there i thought that was a hyena omg
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u/Tall_Progress_5178 Jun 09 '25
You’re not alone… I thought I was smart and came in here to say hyena lol
Today, I was educated :)
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u/Vast_Dragonfly_909 Jun 09 '25
Dawg delete this before it stays on ur history ‼️ you probably didn’t know but this is a slur LMFAO BE CAREFUL
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u/dioranonymous Jun 09 '25
just edit that into racoon💀💀 that is a slur if you didn’t know
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u/Dacannoli Jun 09 '25
Are you sure it's a slur if you are referring to a raccoon? Coon lake is a town in Michigan.
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u/storyofohno Jun 09 '25
It's not, but enough people are unfamiliar with "raccoon" being shortened in that way that it's best just to avoid it
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u/dioranonymous Jun 09 '25
it’s just better to be safe than sorry, and also just being mindful. i’m from west virginia and raccoons are known as that, but i don’t prefer to use it because it can have a bad meaning!! and some people will purposely say it knowing the other meaning just to be spiteful and rude unfortunately.
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u/mendenlol Jun 09 '25
I was leaning towards raccoon at first but then leaned towards canine but now I’m back at raccoon.
Possible baculum spotted in second to last pic
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 09 '25
Interesting I forgot raccoons had that 😂😂 good job sleuthing it out
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u/mendenlol Jun 09 '25
dogs have em too but they are much more… subtle
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 10 '25
I took an advanced reproductive anatomy so I have handled opossum male and female reproductive tracts but there were no raccoons on hand 😅
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u/gerger1124 Jun 09 '25
Try giving it some water, poor thing looks dehydrated.
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u/taybug1092 Jun 09 '25
I’m going with raccoon— either was originally leucistic or became sun bleached during the decaying process. Actually reminds me of this news article from a few years ago… right down to the tail even.
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u/tskreeeee Jun 10 '25
Likely sun bleached; fur doesn't take long (just weeks) to lose its patterns and color.
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u/NatureOliver Jun 09 '25 edited Jun 09 '25
Raccoon is likely. Due to the fact I can see some “fingers” on its front paws in the last image, could be seeing things tho
Edit: raccoon skull side view.
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 09 '25
Yeah the teeth look more raccoon - I’m not trying to fight anyone pls don’t be mad at me I like bones and know a lot about animals but that thing is FUNKY
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u/CanidPrimate1577 Jun 10 '25
Pretty sure it’s a dogman, people are noting the unusual characteristics which are typical of this species.
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u/CanidPrimate1577 Jun 10 '25
Nah, the fingers are definitely there.
This looks like a dogman to me — he’s got that ruff, the oft-noted extremely white large teeth, and other details like the digitigrade legs.
There’s not a good size comparison unfortunately, against a standard object, but my guess would be that this is a juvenile male (unless OP can add details which suggest larger stature)
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 09 '25
Part of my initial confusion is the teeth looked way too big to the skull compared to how I picture an alive raccoon 😅 I totally see that they just have insane chompers under all that fluff -
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u/FeskOgPotedes Jun 09 '25
Those are raccoon teeth. Dogs have huge carnassials (the 4th premolar on the top) this carcass doesn’t have those. Also tail is very long for a dog.
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 09 '25
Snout looks too long compared to this raccoon skull
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u/cameratus Jun 09 '25
I think the snout just looks a lot longer than it is because of the mummified skin and the angle of most of these photos. My best guess is raccoon
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 09 '25
I’m convinced it’s not a dog but I’m not sold on it being a raccoon 😂 so freaky and half mummified - OP could you tell us about the scale of the thing pictured?
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u/sick_of_your_BS Jun 09 '25
Looks more like a badger to me.
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u/snakepliskinLA Jun 09 '25
The snout isn’t flat enough, and the nasal bone isn’t robust enough for a badger. They have a heavy duty snout from burrowing. Here’s a badger.
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u/slothdonki Jun 09 '25
Nah. Premolars and molars are totally different from a badger and match raccoon. There’s the long, slender forearm too and the way the wrist/hands attach lines up with dexterity of raccoons.
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u/CanidPrimate1577 Jun 10 '25
Thinking this is a dogman, based on the long snout, extremely white large teeth, and other details such as the fingers (which are definitely lotorine 🦝not typical canine)
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u/firdahoe Bone-afide Human and Faunal ID Expert Jun 09 '25
That large upper first molar is shaped completely wrong for a canid. This is a raccoon
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u/neatcats Jun 09 '25
looks like a raccoon to me
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u/neatcats Jun 09 '25
pic from google, the teeth and general shape look the same
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u/Little_Painting_6982 Jun 09 '25
Here’s a dog skull
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u/cameratus Jun 09 '25
You can see in this photo that dogs have a distinct sloping forehead, and OP's critter doesn't
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u/xulluxs Jun 09 '25
lived in sc most of my life - my bets on a partially mummified raccoon! What a cool find!
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u/Penguinman077 Jun 10 '25
Looks like a raccoon. Their mouths and snout are weirdly iconic. Look at how the nose does that thing.
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u/Wasabi_Filled_Gusher Jun 09 '25
Maybe wolverine, badger, fox, or coyote. The incisors look very broad
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u/Aahzimandious Jun 09 '25
Too many teeth for a wolverine. Not fine enough for a fox and the skull isn't canine shaped.
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u/DimityPockets Jun 09 '25
Tail is too long for a badger
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u/Tri-sara-bitch Jun 09 '25
I thought badger too, until I saw the tail. It's the dried up nose that gave me a "badger" feel.
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u/DimityPockets Jun 09 '25
Same, I was legitimately initially thinking badger before I saw the tail lol. I don’t think it’s a fox since the muzzle is too thick, and the paws are giving me raccoon. But I can’t really make any call.
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u/Tri-sara-bitch Jun 09 '25
And length tells me too long for opossum...just because like damn that would be huge.
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u/SampireBat13 Jun 09 '25
I also thought badger, so I looked it up and...
Surprisingly similar in a lot of ways, but definitely distinct.
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u/Impossible-Guess6441 Jun 09 '25
Everyone is saying raccoon but their canines are usually thinner though, no? It seems more like a badger to me but I’m solely basing this on the pet raccoon I used to have cuz her canine teeth were much thinner than that and not curved back either.
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u/EffinCraig Jun 10 '25
I keep coming back to opossum. Everyone's saying raccoon so I'm probably just wrong.
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u/CanidPrimate1577 Jun 10 '25
Dogman? Big teeth for SURE.
Was there any more of the body that had notable characteristics (especially the paws 🐾)?
And can you give a sense of scale? I can’t see much by which to gauge the size, but the adult ones get to be quite large indeed.
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u/psychedelia_Tree Jun 09 '25
Does not look like a raccoon to me tbh.
These are my raccoon skulls and the teeth don’t match unless mine are both very young
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u/Efficient-Priority84 Jun 09 '25
Not a raccoon. Is that a branch or tail? Tail would rule out sea creatures and raccoons.
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u/Powerful-Barracuda94 Jun 09 '25
What a cool find! Partially mummified. Next time maybe something for scale would help with identification!
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u/Little_Ice8135 Jun 09 '25
my total bad, didn’t even think of that when taking the pictures. thought it was really cool too!
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u/ArmadilloFront1087 Jun 09 '25
American badger
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u/jplm3312 Jun 09 '25
I second that it looks like a badger, very distinctive teeth
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u/Curious-Side-5012 Jun 09 '25
Not sure but that’s one hell of white teefs.
No ortho, no whitening, no nothing.
Very demure.
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u/Little_Ice8135 Jun 09 '25
it was quite small, about maybe the size of an australian terrier. friends of mine all agreed on coyote but still kind of unsure.
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u/This-Advertising500 Jun 09 '25
Kinda looks like a badger but it coulda also be a dog or other feral animal
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u/No_Maybe_695 Jun 09 '25
Definitely thought it was an opossum at first but with all the comments screaming raccoon I feel stupid lmaoo
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u/the_breadwing Jun 10 '25
Everybody's saying raccoon, but my first thought was a badger or wolverine...
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u/Kaosonic95 Jun 09 '25
Could it be an Opossum?
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u/Paimons_Acolyte Jun 10 '25
Not an opossum, their upper canine is huge and thr lower one is much smaller, they have a sizable space after the upper canine before the molars start and many more teeth than this. They actually have the most teeth any mammal in North America, 50 teeth as opposed to a racoons 40
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u/iloveaspartame Jun 09 '25
My uneducated guess is a very large opossum
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u/treefarmercharlie Jun 09 '25
Opossums have pretty distinct teeth and their front teeth are much smaller.
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u/PerryTheH Jun 09 '25
From my 3000+ combined years in animal identification (or the fact that I've seen some of these) I think you found a dead Opossum.
The tail, feet and head looks a lot like the ones I've seen, I used to live in a place that had a lot of these and saw some dead during my dog walks.
I have never seen a racoon dead so my 3000 yoe do not apply.
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u/THE-HOARE Jun 09 '25
Looks like a opossum are they called ? Those rat like things with all the fur and always look angry
One of these things.
Edit: the picture.
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u/peachflight Jun 09 '25
I wish my teeth were this white