Vore Buffalo Jump

6 days ago

This is Molly Herron's final post before she is off on a dig for the summer. The VBJF Board extends our thanks to Molly for all her hard work this semester and for sharing with us all! Here is Molly's post:

My how the time flies when you are trying to catalog the remains of around 22,000 bison! The spring semester at the University of Wyoming has finished, and the curation technicians who were working on the Vore collection have all run off to different survey and excavation projects around Wyoming and Alaska! (Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of the crew together before we scattered to the wind!) Although the summer means that work on the Vore collection is coming to a pause, we are excited to be bringing on more technicians and interns for the fall semester!

This semester, we cleaned, cataloged, and curated enough bison bones to fill fifty new boxes! We have entirely cataloged everything collected from 1996 and on into the 2000s. We are officially working on bones collected in the 1970s and the early 1990s! We have also cleaned, consolidated, and curated twenty bison crania (not all pictured). Additionally, we learned how to make 3D photogrammetry models and custom curation quality boxes for permanent storage. Finally, we are working on rectifying our database with the original lab files field and lab files.

After the work this semester, we have completely cataloged and curated about 15-20% of the whole of the Vore collection, and with additional help in the fall, we should continue plugging along to ensure that this unique legacy collection is preserved and available for researchers and interested members of the public alike!

I want to extend a special thank you to all of the followers of the Vore Buffalo Jump Facebook page, the members of the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation (especially Jacqueline Wyatt), the members of the Office of the Wyoming State Archaeologist (OWSA), and everyone who is interested in this site and the amazing collection that accompanies it!

Research of the Vore collection is funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and in part by donations from supporters to the Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation. ... See MoreSee Less

Vore Buffalo Jump

4 weeks ago

Time for another interesting post from Molly Herron! This week the topic is spinal fusion. In humans, spinal fusion is a medical procedure in which two or more vertebrae are permanently fused together to prevent movement and increase chances of healing. Vertebrae fusion in animals is not the result of a medical operation but typically of a healed injury that became arthritic and caused the bony protrusions to weave together, permanently fusing the bones. This is the case in these two bison lumbar vertebrae (L4 and L5) that were found during excavations of the Vore sinkhole. Due to the location of these two vertebrae in the body, this bison likely would have still moved around fairly normally (albeit stiffly), although it likely had issues lying down and may have suffered some pain. The arthritis on these vertebrae can best be seen between the spinous processes and around the bodies of the vertebra. Finds like this in the Vore assemblage are just another reminder that in a mass kill, the hunters had very little discretion of which animals are taken. Thus, mass kill sites offer one of the best ways to analyze the health and biological variation in a herd. Research of the Vore collection is funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). ... See MoreSee Less

Vore Buffalo Jump

1 month ago

This week Molly Herron shares her final set of anatomy comparisons between bison and humans – the back limb. Notice the similarities in length between long bones, such as the femur and tibia. The average height of a bison (at the shoulders) is 5 feet to 6.5 feet, placing humans and bison close to eye level. However, bison weigh substantially more than humans. The average weight for a plains bison is around 1600 pounds. This is why all bison elements are far more robust than those of humans and why some elements – such as the innominate – require more projecting muscle attachments. By far, the most apparent difference between bison and humans is the forelimb. The tarsals (not all present or articulated exactly for the bison in this image), metatarsals, and phalanges are quite distinct. Just like in the forelimb, in the hindlimb, bison have a fused metapodial instead of multiple tarsals, and the position of the phalanges means that bison essentially walk on tip-toe. In contrast, humans strike the ground with their calcaneus and roll the rest of the foot down only to press off on the joint between the metatarsals and proximal phalanges (or the ball of the foot). The lower limbs of each species are well adapted and unique to their environments. Research of the Vore collection is funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). ... See MoreSee Less