This week I have another mystery object for you from the Dead Zoo:
Any idea what this might be? Clue: it’s NOT a cauliflower.
Zygoma
Adventures in natural history collections
This week I have another mystery object for you from the Dead Zoo:
Any idea what this might be? Clue: it’s NOT a cauliflower.
Zygoma 
First thoughts are some sort of fungi – cauliflower mushroom doesn’t seem to quite fit though
NOT a cauliflower, eh?
Really a mostly accurate replica, I’d assert, but overall too rosy yet twin in shape.
I think that might do for a clue, but maybe I’m way off base.
Manual part of a drowned person?
A cancerous femur.
My tuppenorth, for now.
The lower third looks very like bone, whereas the “cauliflower” bit looks like a sessile, probably non-bilaterian. I am taking for granted that we are looking at an animal, as it is from the zoo.
If this is the case, my first guess (above), seems less outrageous than I thought.
The other option include some form of coral, a bizarre hydra, or (really reaching here) a sponge.
I shall, of course, as usual, wait to be told that not only are my assumptions misguided, but my guesses are risible. I know you guys need a good laugh.
Is it preserved in a liquid?
Yep, it’s in 70% alcohol.
The opening in the bottom seems important.
The opening is not particularly important.
antler with some kind of pathology-artiodactyl of some type?
Dead coral?
Perhaps more mineral than animal or vegetable.
Since the opening at the bottom is important, thanks, Paolo, I’m assuming animal with a liquid-carrying vessel, that bit looks a lot like a preserved blood vessel or large siphon.
Oops, a late remark by Paolo says the opening at the bottom is NOT important, or particularly important. So scratch my following comment.
Soft tissues are preserved in 70% alcohol? Can we assume this is soft or soft-ish? What size is this thing?
I would say soft coral but I can’t find a key to genus
A useful Egyptian goddess, perhaps in the shade of a Greek tree?
The only thing that looks familiar to me is the unimportant part- which I would guess is a barnacle base. The cauliflower part is so amazing! I would go with some kind of coral.
Is it a meat-eater?
Sort of!