A young boy and his grandpa found the remains of a set of elk antlers along a creek in northern Illinois. The eye guards and part of the skull was barely sticking out of the ground when they found them. The grandpa had to dig the rest of the antlers out of the ground. From what they told me it sounds like,maybe high water eroded part of the bank and exposed the antlers. The last documented sighting of a elk in this county was in 1850's or 1860's. The antlers have a 44" inside spread and are rotted fairly bad.I was wondering if those antlers could be hundreds of years old. I would like some info .
Yes, antlers can be preserved in the ground for very long periods of time under the right conditions. I read an article several years ago where a man found a shed elk antler in southern Ohio back in the 1980's when he spotted just the tip protruding from a ravine, He dug it out an biologist confirmed it was over 100 years old- the last reported wild elk in Ohio was around the1870's. Incidently I read that article in Colorado while out there on an elk hunt & I'm from Ohio!
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