What animal’s jawbone did I find?

February 7, 2025 6:54 PM

I’ve asked about a found jawbone before, but here’s another one - whose is it? Found on the sidewalk in Seattle, in a neighborhood with some coyote presence and a lot of foot traffic. Thanks!
posted by centrifugal to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

Really hard to know with no indication of scale. Is it an inch long? 6 inches? Obviously the front is broken off, but the size would still help.

Not a grazing animal.
posted by oneirodynia at 8:18 PM on February 7

Response by poster: Oh, no, that was a stupid mistake on my part, apologies. This piece is two inches long and the tooth is half an inch long.
posted by centrifugal at 8:26 PM on February 7

I believe it's from a small, short-faced dog. That tooth looks like the second-to-last molar in a dog's mandible. (A couple of pages with photos for comparison: #1, #2.) Can you see holes behind the tooth where roots of a smaller tooth used to be?

I haven't found any picture of a dog mandible that looks exactly like yours, but there's a huge amount of variation in dogs. Most dog mandibles don't start curving upwards right after the molars like this one. That's why I think the dog was something short-faced like a pug. And most pictures don't show an angular process (the bump sticking down from the bottom) that is almost perpendicular to the mandible like the one in your picture. But I did find a picture of a bull terrier mandible with a similar angular process. The page isn't loading for me now, but check out image search results for "bull terrier mandible" and hopefully you will see it.
posted by Redstart at 9:15 PM on February 7 [3 favorites]

If you look at fox and coyote jaws I think you'll rule them out, and that leaves small dog as the main thing left.
I've heard of even big dogs being taken down by coyotes in WA, fwiw.
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:43 AM on February 8

the second-to-last molar in a dog's mandible

Carnassial!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:54 PM on February 8