jaw bone found with teeth

[benny147]

hi guys i have just got back off my holidays from pontyberem in south wales, and whilst i was there i found a jaw bone half way up a river that has still got 2 large teeth in it. i have been told off a friend of mine that it could be a wild boar but we are both not 100% positive if it is or not so i am hoping somebody could shed some light on what it could be. the link is below for the picture ... thanks

http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/DSC00447.jpg

[bigdave60dog]

Its an ungulate (sheep, cattle, deer etc.) Chances are that it`s a sheeps bottom jaw. They have a gap between the molars and incisors as does this one. A dead sheep is the anmal most likely to be in that river so the balance of probabiliy is sheep.
Dave

[benny147]

i was wondering if it was a sheep or not but i thought that the teeth might be too big to be a sheep, but it must have been in the river a long time as there was no fields close by to where i found the bone and no sheep close to where i was staying, and also the bone was realy in bedded in the river it took me a while to come across it

[benny147]

it was literally down the road from the cottage i was staying in and there were no fields round that area so i don't know where or how the sheep could have got to that river if indeed it is a sheep

[Lance Morgan]

Size is important? by look of tiles i would say 11 inch or so. It is an ungulate as stated. Most of the teeth would be covered by flesh. I think it is cattle.. it could have been washed down the river during spate from higher grazing on top.

[benny147]

it is about 11 - 12inch but i can see that it is not all there and that some of the jaw has broken away at some point so it would probably have been larger, it just strikes me as odd because the river which i found it on well i say river it was more like a stream, it was riddled with boulders and stones so i find it hard to believe it was washed all the way down the stream and ended up where i found it trapped between a boulder and i could tell that it had been there for a very long time so its just strange thats all how i found it in such a weird place

[Lance Morgan]

It rains (especially in Wales) and small streams become raging torrents. the boulders will also get washed down