Herping

Herping

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Aging a Black-tailed Deer with a Jawbone

About two weeks ago, I was out hiking and stumbled upon a black-tailed deer carcass. I decided to let it stay out in the hills for a week, and then I came and took the jawbone home. After hours of cleaning and multiple bottles of hydrogen peroxide, here is the (half) jawbone, finally cleaned:

Jaw from Black-tailed Deer
(Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)

Listed below the individual teeth are the numbers for the molars (M) and premolars (P). Unfortunately, premolar 1 was broken off when I found the bone.
Using this guide, I was able to judge that the deer was, sadly, just under 2.5 years old when it died. Premolar 3, which had two cusps instead of three, determined that the deer was over 1.5 years old.



I then saw that the dentin on the premolar 3 was narrower at the enamel at the crests but about the same to a little bit wider on molar 1. This let me know that the deer was older than 19 months but a little younger than 2.5 years.