Ovibos moschatus Blainville, 1816 fossil musk ox skull (~14.5 cm across at its widest) from the Pleistocene of Ohio, USA.

It’s not often a rare fossil is brought to me by the general public. This is a paleoeroded, Late Pleistocene, partial skull of the Arctic musk ox, Ovibos moschatus. The species is still alive today, living at high latitudes of North America. During the last Ice Age (Pleistocene), the species was much more widely distributed.

Before this skull was found, the fossil record of the Arctic musk oxen in Ohio was only two specimens - one in southwestern Ohio and one in northeastern Ohio. The skull shown below, currently in private hands, was found in central Ohio, right in the middle of the species’ previously known paleogeographic distribution.

This is a posterior view of the broken top of the skull (dorsal at top; ventral at bottom). The groove along the dorsal side marks the boundary between the two horns (not preserved here).

Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae

Age: Wisconsinan, Late Pleistocene, 15-18 ka (= age of unconsolidated glacial sediments at this locality; see Pavey et al., 1999).

Locality: ~60 feet below the surface, in clay, from a flooded gravel pit at the St. Louisville Gravel Pit (Shelley Concrete Company), eastern side of the North Fork of the Licking River, a little east of Rt. 13, south of St. Louisville, northern Newton Township, northern Licking County, central Ohio, USA (40˚ 09.572’ North, 82˚ 24.766’ West)

Species identified by Dale Gnidovec

Some info. from:

McDonald, H.G. & R.A. Davis. 1989. Fossil muskoxen of Ohio. Canadian Journal of Zoology 67: 1159-1166.

Hansen, M.C. 1997. Phylum Chordata - vertebrate fossils. in Fossils of Ohio. Ohio Division of Geological Survey Bulletin 70: 288-369.