Friday again and here is another peak at some of the funky stuff I get to work with behind the scenes at the Horniman Museum. This is a specimen without a label from one of our cupboards – any idea what it might be?
As usual suggestions in the comments section below – I will do my best to answer any questions, but since my Google phone has died I can only respond when in front of a computer, so patience may be required. Good luck!
Zygoma 
Ok, its a skull, and it looks like it might be a carnivoran of some sort, based on the saggital crest, and the orbits look about right, but I have no idea what the hell is covering it. Is it from a cave deposit?
I thought it was a lump of coral but, now you mention it, it does look a bit skully!
After last weeks challenge I’m wondering whether it’s something cunningly carved to look like something else.
I vote it is a specimen of brain coral. The only problem is I don’t see any parrot fish! 🙂
So here we reach a split in opinions – is it something that is not a skull, but looks (or has been made to look) like one, or is it a skull that does not (or has been made to not) look like one?
My clue is that it has been made to look the way it does at least partly by the action of humans…
Is it a dog’s head that has been calcified by hanging it up in Mother Shipton’s cave?
Mother Shipton’s Petrifying Well results in a flowstone tuffa deposit that is characteristically smooth (in relative terms!). Unlike this.
Ooh, good suggestion…
Is it a piece of prep work from Damien Hirsts workroom? And if so, I dare you to take a red marker to it and sell it on eBay.
My first thought was that it’s a skull that’s been coated in whisked latex. Could it have been calcified and then left in water or outside?
Cx
Unless it’s a dead rabbit [you have to squint, but the shape is there] that has been covered in tripe, my question is: was the human action to turn it inside out?
The human action was not to turn it inside out – but I can see what you mean about the tripe…