This week I’ll give you one that’s probably way too easy, but it’s a fascinating specimen:
As usual you can leave your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to reply. Good luck!
Zygoma
Adventures in natural history collections
Zygoma 
Very piggy.
That is exactly what I thought when I first set eyes on it!
I don’t want to monkey around too much, as that would be a bit previous. But there is something of the koala about this, don’t you think?
Nice.
Devilish?
Not notably so
Certainly looks oinky, is it extant? How big is it?
It’s about 25-30 cm long and you’re unlikley to ever see one with the skin on these days…
Well, I thought this would be all done and dusted by this stage, having only had a quick look this morning.
Unlikely to see because of rarity or habitat & nature of the beast?
Actually my first thought was dog, now switching to something hounds might hunt (not foxhounds though). Wondering whether wine might be needed here?
Ps I don’t have my glasses.
Or possibly meringues
Unlikely to be seen because they’re extinct
I’m not going to say, as I believe I saw this very specimen out and about for the first time a couple of months ago..
😉
Is it Artiodactyla?
Nope
My first thought was tapir… but no
(actually my first thought was: this is really cool. Between Jake’s Bones and past FMOs I’m not going to get much useful work done at all.)
So some kind of prehistoric pig thing? its got weird ridge bits over the eye sockets. Is it broken at the front or does the nose really look like that?
google throws up some possibilities but that’s not the point.
Entelodont? but I don’t think its big enough. there’s no pronounced cheek flange.
Its got a pretty big cranium.
Hippo-ish too
Not a pig thing – well spotted on the eye sockets, they’re actually pretty diagnostic for identifying the Order this belongs to.
I know we had one not long ago, but is this another peccary?
Nope – it’s not piggy at all
Entelodont? Don’t think so. It doesn’t look bumpy enough.
You have to admit the koala thing is a bit of a stumper…if it’s a marsupial my guess would be something like a Diprotodon but that is definitely not a Diprotodon.
Shame we can’t get a good look at the teeth, either. Am I right in thinking it’s omnivorous?
The Koala thing is very misleading, although it manages to be very pertinent to this species…
Something from the Condylarthra?