Volker:

Fascinating ! Just taking liberty of indulging in a wild guess: looking at the shape and geometry of depression mark, it looks like a pristine feature, possibly caused by pointed tusk stab injury during violent animal fight.

Best

Syed

Syed,

good idea! A pressure mark on the surface of the limb bone and perhaps a crack /fissure starting near the centre of the pressure mark caused by a tusk stab during an animal fight.

Thank you very much;

Volker

Try this book:

Fernández-Jalvo, Y. and Andrews, P. (2016) Atlas of Taphonomic Identifications. Springer. ISBN 978-94-017-7432-1 (1001+ Images of fossil and recent mammal bone modification)

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9789401774307

Best,

Javier Martínez-Salanova

Hello. This bone is very interesting. Also I think it can be a sign of predation. In the literature are known cases of vertebrate bones in which it is possible to see signs of the teeth from a predator. These signs can be produced either during an aggression (or fight) or during a meal. In your case, clearly only a careful study can resolve the problem.

Best regards,

Riccardo

Hello Javier & Riccardo,

thanks very much for your good infos and feedback! Yes: now, a careful study of this fossil object is very important. First, I try to find out, from which skeletal position the limb bone fragment derives.

All the best;

Volker

It does not look like predator modification. Without Geological context I’d guess non-anthropogenic tool marking or trampling modification.

Joshua,

thank you! Yes, I agree with you => if it would be a predator (carnivore) bite or claw mark, there would be typical rounded resp. linear structures on the surface of the limb bone fragment. I also think, that this depression mark arosed by strong pressure influence, probably caused during an animal fight (maybe a "task stab injury", like Syed proposed) or because of an animal trampling action (additional proposal from you).

Best regards,

Volker

Hello.

Analyzing the bone more closely, we notice another thing that I have highlighted: a depression. If it is not a joke of light, this depression, which is adjacent to the groove in question, may have been produced concurrently with the groove itself. You should analyze everything well to see if they can be related.

Greetings

Riccardo,

thanks - very precious infos about the fossil object from Untereichen-Altenstadt. Carefully, I will check this possible second depression too, when I stay at the "State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart next time!

After that date, I hope I'm able to give more informations about these unusual structures :-)

All the best;

Volker