Last week’s mystery object was a bit too easy, so this week I’m giving you more of a challenge:
Can you work out what these bones are and which animal they’re from?
I’ll do my best to respond to your questions, comments and suggestions if you put them below. Good luck!
Zygoma 
An ilium, right mandible, cervical vertebrae, axis and an atlas of a quadruped… but from here I’m stumped.
Spot on with the elements!
I’ll do it with clues: pel, lv,nv, holds the world up, don’t know
I’m going to change my lv to a nv (cv)
The atlas is more like a fox than a deer.
Well done for Rhea for the fifth !
Young, because how #1 broke.
Badger ?
Great stuff – good observation on the atlas and the ilium. Not a Badger though.
Aw, thanks, Jake!
forest, near water?
They were collected in February 1961 from Harefield Pit, a series of gravel pits that have been flooded since before 1945
Oh right, it lives in London and so it can’t be a capibara….. the mandible is an interesting shape, so I will stick with the same first letters of the name.
If you’re thinking Capra then nope, if you’re thinking Cat then nope.
no I was thinking hydro…
Not a Water Deer
Muntjac or roe deer?
Nope, it’s nothing deery!
Dog?
Is the ilium really that rounded and curvy or is it just the angle? How about C_n_s lu_ _s?
I think it is a dog because if it was c- l- the bones would look brown and older and the atlas is a bit too big to be a fox.
Ah, I see. Might C. latr_ _s be another possibility?
I so look forward to Friday mystery objects, making guesses and learning from everyone’s observations and comments. I’m really enjoying myself and I’m glad I discovered this site and the regulars on it!
I always look forward to this on Fridays; and if I delay looking at it long enough, someone is sure to have done all the hard work already. Well done Rhea & Jake on the initial bone IDs!
I really look forward to Fridays too, thank you Jake for telling me about it.
I can see now where I was going wrong on the shape of the mandible. When I compare it to my fox, it is very similar but much bigger and Jake thinks it only a young one. I’ve looked up the location, it’s in quite a built up area, so it could be a stray dog. My friends dog fell throuigh the ice on our local gravel pit, and drowned, when we lived in Cambridgeshire.
…but this has to be something worth giving to a museum…?