This week I have a nice little skull for you to identify. Any idea what this is?
As usual, you can put your suggestions, comments and questions below and I will do my best to answer – although it may take me a while as I have a NatSCA meeting for most of the day. Good luck!
Zygoma 
Looks a lot like a grey squirrel, but it would have to be a squirrel to be the size of a cat. Some kind of big rodent ?
I think Jake’s on the right track. I’m not certain, but if I new how much lumber it could throw I might have a better idea.
“knew,” dang it.
Very close indeed.
Yes indeed – it is a squirrel the size of a cat!
Definitely a rodent.But its a big one. Doesn’t look like a beaver, capybara or coypu though. Perhaps a porcupine of some sort?
It is indeed a rodent, but not one of the ones mentioned so far…
I was convinced it was a Naked Mole Rat skull.. until I saw the scale bar.
I think I’ve got it from Neil’s hint..
Neil wasn’t quite there (although he was very close)
The postorbital process is a give away for the Sciuridae family a.k.a. squirrels, colud it be a Giant Squirrel (Ratufa sp)?
Definitely Sciuridae, but not a Giant Squirrel
shouldn’t a Giant Squirrel be a Squirr without the diminutive -el?
Or perhaps a ‘squire’
A close relative of Punxsutawney Phil?
Indeed – a close relative from the old country
Let us begin by working this out logically. It’s a rodent. It has four cheek teeth, therefore it is not a myomorph (rats, mice, etc.) The angle of the jaw rules out hystricognaths (guinea pigs, etc.), therefore, by a process of elimination, it is a “squirrel-like” rodent. It is too small to be a beaver, and the wrong shape to be a gopher, ergo, it is, indeed, a squirrel.
That’s as far as logic will get me, and, obviously there’s lots of squirrels. The zygoma looks reasonably solid for a squirrel, and its obviously one of the larger ones, anyway, which narrows it down. I rather suspect you could go round and round on this one, day after day…
Right genus, wrong species…
That only leaves, what, thirteen other options? No idea how to tell them apart, but maybe it’s the cowardly one? On no better grounds than they seem to be fairly common, I admit…
Alpine Marmot?