It’s Friday again, we all know what that means – Mystery Object time!
Last week I gave you a really tricky one, that you managed to work out with some clues. I liked the Q&A format, but unfortunately I am between ISP’s at the moment, so I don’t think I will have the chance to have as much input this week. Instead there is a poll (although comments are always welcome!) and I will return to my favourite objects – skulls.
So, what is this the skull of? Choose an answer from the poll below (don’t forget to hit “vote”):
For those of you who find this too easy and want a bit more of a challenge you can try to guess the age of the animal when it died. These pics may help:
Again, just post your answer in the poll below:
Finally, I will be at the Grant Museum of Zoology in London this Saturday (10am-4pm), facilitating an open doors event – part of which involves providing access for photography of museum specimens by the public (we can even lend you a camera!), so if you want to take some of your own images of skulls etc., or even if you just want to find out more, why not come along and join in? Hope to see you on Saturday!
Zygoma 
It feels like cheating to search Google Images for each type of skull in turn…
I wouldn’t call it cheating – I’d call it research!
I would recommend Will’s Skull page as being a better source of information, rather than just trawling through Google Image results.
I went for Roe deer / 18 months. Toss up between Roe and Sika deer. I don’t have a good feel for how variable skulls are and what the key identification features are.
It is tricky distinguishing between deer species – especially if they don’t have any antlers. Even then, there is a great deal of plasticity in antler form within a species. The skulls tend to be less variable, but they can still vary by quite a bit – as with all animal skulls.
Aha, I went for Sika Deer 12 months, but yeah it was a bit of a gamble between that and Roe Deer 🙂
Roe Deers are a bit smaller, hmm…. Can I change my answer?
Great quiz as always! Have you considered writing a skulls chapter for the TAM pub quiz?
Carmen x
More than considered, I am all signed up!
Thank you for indulging the aged and using a dual scale tape measure. I still don’t have a clue, I shall have to resort to Will’s skull page again. Oh, I do have one clue – I don’t think it’s a Chinese water deer because don’t they have tusks?
Indeed, Chinese water deer do have tusks – good observation!
I’ve opted for Roe deer 2 years old.
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Yay! The poll still works, and I chose the right one (that wasn’t a camel)! ☺️
The skulls of the animal I chose can grow bigger, and they can live for 20 years! The teeth do look a bit worn and old though, so I went for 5 years old when it dieded!