This week I have a really cool mystery object for you to have a go at identifying:
I’d be very interested to hear what you think it might be – but I suspect it will be a bit of a challenge. Enjoy!
Friday mystery object #464
Zygoma
Adventures in natural history collections
Zygoma 
This one’s a real teaser! It’s a fossil, it’s got teeth, it’s a herbivore, it’s rabbit shaped and sized…..Palaeolagus or similar?
I am agreeing with you on the Palaeolagus – which one of nine species? And do the teeth look ridged or just hypsodont.= with folded enamel and dentine?
There are now 9 species?!!! The critters are multiplying like…oh! Wait a minute….!
Wow, it’s huge!
Giant even?
Agreed this is the fossil skull of a rodent or lagomorph.
Neanderbunny!
What’s up Doc? Boy, am I embarrassed to say I thought we were back with another bone from the ankle region… only now do I see the teeth… sheesh.
I thought it looked like a fossilized part of a jawbone but I can’t figure out the teeth! Some comments mention rodents, but my first thought was anteater. Do anteaters have teeth? 🙂
No teeth needed for ants!
Got as far as ‘fossil’, ‘skull’, ‘small mammal’, and even then I wasn’t certain of any of those details.
Did this critter hop? Or not?
Not a hopper!
Aha! That gets me . . . somewhere? Flatfooted?
I suspect digitigrade.
Oh, my god, I’m going to get graded on this thing? I’d better get my feet back on the ground.
Feet off the ground is just fine!
Could be a fossil aardvark?