Last week Rachel provided a great squamate mystery object and answer for you – so many thanks to her!
This week I’ve decided to give you an easier one, which I know some of you will get straight away. If you know it, please be considerate of the non-biology types and try to avoid blurting out the answer (a well-crafted clue is much more fun anyway).
So what is this the skull of?
I will do my best to respond to questions and suggestions during the day. Good luck!
Zygoma 
Is it a marsupial ? The dent in the side of the jaw is like a kangaroo.
It is indeed a marsupial – well spotted! Not a kangaroo though!
A well-crafted clue, eh? If this is the skull I think it is, then I know a fair bit about these creatures so I can go very obscure, (They are incapable of sweating), mildly obscure, (Their name does not mean ‘I don’t know’, contrary to popular belief), or just slightly silly and amusing along the lines of your own well-crafted clue: I never did figure out why he wanted it tied down!
I’m afraid it’s not what you think it is!
OK, here’s my non-biologist reasoning: it has a beak-like bit at the front with a gap between it and the teeth. That suggests something that tears at vegetation rather than grazing it, stuffs its face and then chomps away at leisure. The bony bit over the beaky bit suggests support for some pretty strong mouth muscles, too. That suggests what it’s eating is pretty tough stuff. As to whether the tough stuff is some kind of succulent, a heavy grass or eucalyptus leaves, well I wouldn’t have a clue unless I’d been given a clue. I might have said koala as a wild guess.
Good guess – not right, but not too far off!
Skipinder! Boing, boing, boing …….
Alas this doesn’t hop. leap or jump…
I can see what everyone is getting at here, but I’m going to move closer to the ground, something with a decidedly hairier nose!
Good work – although not such a hairy nose
I’m going to plump for a marsupial badger.
Good plumping
I agree with 0bend0 but I wonder if it isn’t bearly different from the species he implies.
Excellent work!
Is it a wombat?
I think this too.
Oops, I blurted there! I said it before I read the instructions, sorry!!
Is it a cross between a
Uterus and a Chiroptera?
🙂
What Matt King said. And no scale bar again. tsk tsk.