This week I have a cute specimen from the Dead Zoo for you to have a go at identifying:
Not the easiest specimen to identify, but I reckon someone will work it out. Have fun!
Friday mystery object #387
Zygoma
Adventures in natural history collections
Zygoma 
First thought is one of several beasts of convergent evolution with species names that sound like the sort of thing you’d find in a scrap yard but could be on the wrong track entirely
First thoughts. The face doesn’t look rodenty. So my guess would be that it has palatal vacuities and an inflected angular process on the dentary. And that it hails from South America.
Note guess
Also, the fur might have been darker when it was alive…
Marsupials have those science-y skull features, I think: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Angular-process-form-plotted-onto-a-marsupial-phylogeny-based-on-Luckett-1994-for_fig1_233608151
“Rod-like” is maximum inflection? They also use the palatal holes to determine species of #antechinus – which is my best guess. Not going for the precise species, as it could be anything, and the mystery object looks fluffier and lighter coloured than the creatures I saw.
Is the skull actually inside the skin?
Anyway, I discovered some fun new ‘rodents’ in the process: hog-nosed rat; long-nosed rat (Paucidentomys vermidax); zokors. Plus, I rediscovered desman and solenodon! 🥰
I can confirm that the fur would’ve been darker in life. I can also confirm that this species is not found in South America 😉
Marsupials have those science-y skull features, I think: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Angular-process-form-plotted-onto-a-marsupial-phylogeny-based-on-Luckett-1994-for_fig1_233608151
“Rod-like” is maximum inflection? They also use the palatal holes to determine species of #antechinus – which is my best guess. Not going for the precise species, as it could be anything, and the mystery object looks fluffier and lighter coloured than the creatures I saw.
Is the skull actually inside the skin?
Anyway, I discovered some fun new ‘rodents’ in the process: hog-nosed rat; long-nosed rat (Paucidentomys vermidax); zokors. Plus, I rediscovered desman and solenodon! 🥰
…Seems to be about 30cm total, and they’re hanging out with the bandicoot family at the Dublin Dead Zoo.
So I’m changing camp to the golden bandicoot (the smallest of the Peramelidae family): Isoodon auratus 🐀🥰
You were closer with the first guess 😉
Most of the tail seems hairless: probably a spotting mark.
In my first guess, I suggested it came from South America, but of course there is another landmass with marsupials!
So maybe, instead of being a small Didelphid (my initial guess) it’s a small Dasyuromorph. (A page of paintings of Dasyuromorphs that I found on the web had some that looked close.) First antechinus photo I found had a furry tail, but Dunnarts seem to have hairless tails…
But there are lots of species of small Ozzie critters (traditionally called “marsupial mice,” though “marsupial shrews” would probably be an apter description) to choose from…
I’ll look for some more pictures…
Goatlips– the snout doesn’t seem quite long and pointy enough for I.a. The I.a. snout seems to have a sort of concave profile: posterior part tapers quickly, then the front is drawn out further.
????
Haven’t a clue mate. Besides probably rodent-y/shrew-y marsupial…
Heck, I just like the name “bandicoot.”
But I think it’s not nosey enough to be a bandicoot. Fooey.
Dunnarts are cuter. But their eyes are too large for Mystery Mouse.
I haven’t a clue but I surly love reading the comments!
I’m voting Dasyuromorph. Not a Thylacine, Tasmanian Devil, quoll, or numbat. That leaves ten or so genera, and a lot of the Wikipedia articles don’t have pictures.
Size might help rule out a few.
But I think I’m stumped.