Mystery of jawbone found on Vernon beach solved

VERNON – To the untrained eye, it looked a lot like a human jawbone.

As you’ll remember, police were quick to rule that out. The teeth, found by a local man near Kin Beach, were examined by the RCMP and identified as non-human.

So what are they? Some have guessed a deer or a dog, but the answer is neither of those species.

We asked Armstrong dentist Dr. Dirk Van Der Meer what he thought. At first, he didn’t know either — but he found someone who did.

Between a specialist at the Vancouver Aquarium and a UBC fish biology expert, the jawbone was identified as the pharyngeal teeth of a carp. Mystery solved.

“It was quite baffling for us in the dental field but nice to have an answer,” Van Der Meer said.

Carp are a large fish with “robust, molar-like” teeth, according to Fishbase.ca. Native to regions of Asia, carp first showed up in the Okanagan around 1912 as a result of populations being introduced in Washington as a food fish in 1882, says the Royal B.C. Museum. They can be identified by their long dorsal fin, large scales, and a “conspicuous” single barbel at the corner of their mouth. 

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