Skull Id

A lot of damage but I would guess that it is a young goat, possibly a sheep. Horns just starting to grow and the horn caps are long lost.

 

Please provide a photo of the chewing surfaces of the teeth. It looks like a white-tailed deer skull to me but can't be sure without seeing the teeth.

 

First thought would have been a deer but those are not antlers. There are no pedicels. Those are bone cores left after the outer horn has come off.

 

Small goat

 

It is definitely a white-tailed deer. Only members of the family cervidae have a preorbital vacuity (the area anterior to the orbits where the sinuses are exposed). Look at photos of sheep and goat skulls and you will see that they do not have preorbital vacuities. The bone protruding from the skull is classic button buck, they almost never have pedicles. In any case, it is the vacuity that keys this to the family cervidae.
http://www.jakegoheen.com/reprints/lab9_artiodactyla-perissodactyla_2017.pdf

 

guys.....its the Jersey Devil!

 

I concur that it is a deer. I didn't want to second guess Sea Wolf, but someone did so I will weigh in. I would actually not be sure it is a button buck. I would guess a 1 1/2 year old poorly nutritioned buck deer. They often have very short spikes - I have shot a couple with much less than 3 inches of horn. A button buck has more rounded points and not as long.

 

I have a blacktailed spike deer skull that looks just like that.

 

PA I would welcome your second guessing or outright correction at any time. I saw the exposed sinus area and just racked it up to the bone damage.