This week I have another skull for you to identify:
Any idea what this is from?
As usual you can make your suggestions, comments and questions below. Good luck!
Zygoma
Adventures in natural history collections
This week I have another skull for you to identify:
Any idea what this is from?
As usual you can make your suggestions, comments and questions below. Good luck!
Zygoma 
Is it what it looks like because that would be too easy ?
If it’s not the obvious thing it could be a GG or a MP ?
Scale?
Ah, I see there is a scale if I open the image in a new window.
Is it genus M_s_e_a, often illegal as pets although pet shops still carry food and treats for them? Or is it the skull of a character in a story from The Jungle Book that isn’t a bird at all, but has one in its common name?
If it is what I think it is, I’ve only ever seen one alive, despite living in the country most of my life. I’ve seen many pancaked on roads, however.
Also looks like a juvenile judging by the visible suture line on the cranium and lack of a sagittal crest.
I certainly want to say “Something Something Something Something Mushroom Mushroom” but I feel like I’m missing something – maybe the premaxilla is a little too jutty for this?
Oh dear, I have just realised that I have been checking out possibilities for over two hours and only have a list of what I don’t think it is.
Hi, I’m new at this but I love the game. From the look of it, it’s a carnivore, a predator with forward-looking eyes. It’s small and since I cannot for the life of me figure out what the other folks are saying or guessing in the previous comments I am thinking that it might be a shrew of some kind. Mongoose comes to mind, also, though I am probably as off course as I could be. Thanks for the fun. I have the beginnings of a skull collection I hope to use for a program at the museum where I work as a naturalist.
Regards,
Diane Tucker
Naturalist
Hill-Stead Museum
Farmington, CT 06107
Not a shrew; it has carnassial teeth. These are the large, jagged, shearing teeth close to the back of the jaw and indicate a member of the order carnivora (I’ll briefly plug my own blog at this point: http://synapsida.blogspot.com/2010/12/carnivores-carnivorans-and-carnassials.html )
From the teeth and the size of the skull, you’d be looking for a flesh-eating animal that’s well over a foot long, but not as large as, say, a wolf. That might narrow it down without giving away the answer!
oh yikes I guess I read that ruler wrong, too! Ok, shall I go for coyote? We have loads of them here and they are quite common. The embarrassment is that I even have a coyote skull in my little collection!
Thanks for your help. Please let me know if I am still wrong….
Diane
The presence of carnassial teeth and the shape of the skull suggest a member of a group I’ve been blogging about lately… most of them, though, seem to have a rather more gracile zygoma than this fellow. It’s rather small, but not as small as, say, a stoat. Of course, if it’s immature (as seems likely) that changes matters. One of the bigger ones, then, and possibly tautonymic?
Of course, that still leaves me with two options, so… how about a gluttonous geegee?
Yet another carnivore. I shall *ahem* you into giving us some more invertebrates.
Well it’s been interesting this week. Like Jake I imediately assumed that it couldn’t be the obvious candidate, although it seems an exact match to what I have in my hand. So, as a result, I have learned loads about all sorts of interesting beasties from all around the world but still not found a better candidate, although it would need to be younger and smaller. Thank you Paolo, you provide a real learning opportunity every week.
Very unsure about this, but based on the shape of the rear of the mandible I’m going for G.g.