Hmmmm. My sister is a forensic archelogist and in a conversation we had about one aspect of SCUBA diving the kind of creeps me out (the idea of finding remains under water) she said that mamal bones are often consumed by microbes and small organisims within a few years or decades. The excpetion being in cold water where there are few (or none) of these organisims present.
In theory, if this elk is from a native heard that pre-dates European settlement, the rest of the elk skeleton should still be down there as well.
I’d be interested to know if the date the skull. Of course it’s hard to think of why anyone would dump the rack and skull of an elk that size, but you never know.
Grouse