Mountain Lion Skull: How to Identify One and the Rules on Keeping It

Hold a mountain lion skull and the first thing you notice is how little snout there is. Cats have short, compact faces, and the teeth follow suit. Texas Tech University's Natural Science Research Laboratory gives the dental formula as I 3/3, C 1/1, P 3/2, M 1/1. On each side, the upper jaw holds three incisors, one canine, three premolars and one molar, and the lower jaw holds three incisors, one canine, two premolars and one molar. Both sides together make 30.

One detail trips up careful counters. The upper molar is very small and may be missing altogether, so a skull with 28 sockets is not automatically something else. Look closely at the back of each upper tooth row before you settle on a number.

The top of the skull carries a strong clue. Oregon State University describes the temporal ridges, the lines where the jaw muscles attach, running together in a V at the front of the braincase and continuing back as a large sagittal crest. Panthera's guide adds a convex nasal profile, a gently arched line along the top of the nose, and a palate shaped like a U on the underside.

Size is useful but not decisive. Panthera gives about 16 to 24 cm for the skull, and it cautions that small skulls are hard to identify by size alone. Age, sex and region all move the number, so read it alongside the teeth and the shape.

All three are cats, so all three have the short face. The difference is in the size and in the upper cheek teeth.

The bobcat, *Lynx rufus*, normally has 28 teeth, two fewer than the mountain lion, according to the University of Georgia Mammal Skull Key. The key places the difference in an extra upper premolar in the mountain lion. Counted per side, that gives a mountain lion four upper cheek teeth, three premolars and a molar, and a bobcat three, two premolars and a molar. A Texas A&M AgriLife Extension guide shows adult mountain lion skulls beside bobcat skulls from the side, the front and below, and the mountain lion is visibly the bigger animal in every view. For the bobcat's own features, read the bobcat skull story.

The house cat, *Felis catus*, is the odd case. Oregon State University describes it as smaller than a bobcat, with 30 teeth and a small first upper premolar, and Colorado State University's dental anatomy pages note that the mountain lion shares the domestic cat's dental formula. So, between those two, counting teeth will not help. Size and proportion do the work, and the gap is large. If your skull fits comfortably in one hand, cat skull identification is the place to go.

A big skull from the mountains could also be a wolf or a bear, and both look quite different from a cat once you know where to look.

A wolf, *Canis lupus*, has a longer, narrower rostrum, the muzzle in front of the eyes, plus 42 teeth, prominent carnassials and a pronounced sagittal crest. The University of Arizona Extension guide to the skulls of Alaskan mammals gives an average adult wolf skull length of about 23 to 29 cm. That overlaps the top of the mountain lion's range, so size will not separate them. The muzzle and the tooth count will: a long dog-like snout with a long row of cheek teeth points to a wolf, and how to identify a wolf skull takes it from there. A smaller skull with that long-snouted shape is more likely a coyote.

Bears are built differently again. Their skulls are broad and heavy, with large canines and teeth that carry more grinding surface for a varied diet. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's guide to reading a mammal skull uses a polar bear to point out the long nasal cavity, the complex structures inside the nose and the large canines. A broad, massive skull with grinding teeth suggests a bear, and the bear skull story has the details. A short face with sharp, blade-like cheek teeth suggests a cat.

Hunters' record books have measured cougar skulls for more than a century, and the method is simple enough to try with calipers. The Boone and Crockett Club's score chart takes two measurements, A for greatest length and B for greatest width, and adds them together.

The club's record cougar came from Tatlayoko Lake, British Columbia, in 1979. Douglas E. Schuk took it, and it was later owned by Charles M. Travers. The skull measured 9 9/16 inches long and 6 11/16 inches wide, for a final score of 16 4/16.

The records go back further. Theodore Roosevelt took a cougar near Meeker, Colorado, in 1901, and the club records that skull at 15 12/16. In 1964 Garth Roberts took a cougar in Garfield County, Utah, that scored 16 and became the club's long-standing record before the British Columbia skull.

Not every famous mountain lion is famous for its skull. P-22 crossed two major freeways to reach Griffith Park in the middle of Los Angeles, where a wildlife biologist photographed him in 2012. His story helped inspire a wildlife crossing project in Southern California.

When P-22 died, his remains raised questions of their own. The Associated Press reported in 2023 that tribal leaders, scientists and conservation advocates buried him in the Santa Monica Mountains after discussions about cultural respect, his remains and scientific samples. A mountain lion's bones, it turned out, could matter to many people at once.

> Not legal advice. What follows is general information. Wildlife laws are written state by state and country by country and are updated, so the wildlife agency for the place where a skull came from is the one to ask about yours.

Mountain lion rules depend on the state and on how the animal came to be dead, and a skull picked up in the field is not automatically legal to keep. Four western states show how much the rules vary.

California. Fish and Game Code section 4800, current law as of October 2026, classifies the mountain lion as a specially protected mammal. It generally prohibits taking, possessing, transporting, importing or selling a mountain lion or any product of one. The exceptions are narrow: documented possession from before June 6, 1990, and museum or educational possession of a lawfully taken carcass or product with the department's authorization.

Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife regulations, as of October 2026, require a legally taken mountain lion to be reported within 48 hours and presented for inspection and sealing within five days, with the head and hide unfrozen. A premolar may be pulled to age the animal. The possession seal is what allows the skull or hide to be possessed, transported, tanned or mounted, and the state's wildlife possession guidance requires that wildlife parts were legally possessed in the first place.

Oregon. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, as of October 2026, requires a cougar taken under hunting rules to be presented at an ODFW office within 10 days, with the hide and skull unfrozen, inspected and marked and proof of sex attached. Cougars taken because of livestock damage follow separate department procedures for what happens to the animal.

Wyoming. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department's 2025 brochure requires hunters to keep the pelt and skull and present them for registration. The skull must arrive unfrozen so the department can collect premolars for aging.

Those are four states, not a rule for yours, and the same caution applies to a skull you are thinking of buying. Before you move, keep, transport or sell a mountain lion skull from the field, contact the wildlife agency for the state and the place where it lay. The agency may ask to inspect it, ask for documentation, or require you to surrender it. Found an animal skull sets out the federal laws that can apply, and how to clean an animal skull comes only after the agency confirms the skull is yours to handle. We Dig Skulls puts skulls on shirts and prints; we never deal in real ones.

The size, the teeth and the law, in short form.

If your skull has fewer teeth and a smaller frame, the bobcat skull story is the next stop, and a small, round one belongs with the cat skull. A long muzzle points to the wolf skull, and a broad, heavy skull to the bear skull. If you are not sure the skull is an animal's at all, read how to tell a human skull from an animal skull before anything else.

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