This week I have a mystery object for you from a recent visit to Oslo:
I apologise for the poor image quality – I was using my phone and this specimen was behind glass, so it was tricky getting a decent photo without a lot of reflections. Given the poor images I’ll drop in a clue – this is a fossil specimen from around 6 million years ago.
Any thoughts on what it could be? As ever, you can leave a comment down below. Have fun working this one out!
Zygoma 
Doggedly trying but with no scale bar I’d hate to cry wolf.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that you weren’t necessarily barking up the wrong tree.
I wouldn’t cry wolf yet, but I stared seeing spots before my eyes just trying to look this up. No… actually it was stripes before my eyes.
Wish I could see those molars-now I don’t know whether to laugh or cry!
i’d be laughing too, with those molars chewing on you!
shame the zombies got the brain, i’d like to see the sagittal crest.
I still don’t hear any barking. Maybe crickets. It’s the mandible that has the scoop on the answer. But hard to see!
My, Gramma, what big teeth you have. But what’s the scale? 1 inch or 1 foot?
just doesn’t look like a dire situation to me….
I agree. We need a SCALE!!
Couldn’t use a scale in a meaningful way, but I would estimate the length of the specimen was 15-17cm.
I expect total skull length would have been around 20-25cm when it was complete.
Consensus seems to be either a Canid or a Hyaenid. Between these…
Bottom profile of lower jaw looks convex, and (subjective judgment) the haw seems short: as if there are maybe fewer molars than in typical Canids. It also looks (another purely subjective judgment) big: I think most Canids from 6 million years ago were comparatively small, but some of the Hyaenids of the time (think Dinocrocuta) were bruisers. So, but without much confidence, I incline toward the H.
(But there are some extinct Carnivoran families, so it might not be anything that familiar.)
Showing the scale of my ignorance without scale and caving in to casting the net wider but could this bear a resemblance to a larger more omnivorous beastie?