That time I mistook a cow bone for a human femur in Vermont

I was doing a volunteer survey on a field near Montpelier last spring, just surface walking after a plow had turned things over. Spotted this long bone sticking out of the dirt and my heart about stopped. Called over the crew lead, she took one look and laughed. Turns out cows leave bones that look a lot like ours if you only see half of it. I felt pretty dumb, but she said it happens at least twice a season. Has anyone else had a false alarm that turned out to be livestock or deer? What gave it away for you?

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spencer_hayes7116d ago

Three summers ago I found a perfect human-looking skull in a creek bed outside Rutland, turns out it was a hog skull that somebody had tossed after a BBQ. My wife still brings it up at family dinners to embarrass me.