This week I’m giving you a mystery object that I think will be fairly straightforward to identify, although it might take a few attempts to get the right species:
Let me know what you think in the comments box below – I’ll do my best to reply to any questions. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you a bit of a tricky mystery object in the shape of this partial skull:
I wasn’t expecting anyone to get it without some clues, but I underestimated my talented audience!
Jake spotted that it was a mammal based on the ear morphology and then worked out what kind of animal based on clues from henstridgesj who suggested seal and Julie Doyle, who managed to not only identify the species, but drop this lovely cryptic clue to convey that information:
Not a lot to phocus on, but……. I’m harboring an idea about who it might be. Continue reading
On Friday I gave you this very easy, but hopefully interesting object:
Unsurprisingly most of you managed to identify this as being the skull of a juvenile or more accurately neonate (new born) Continue reading
On Friday I gave you a genuine mystery object from the Horniman’s collections:
It had been highlighted as potentially being human in origin, but it’s very short, despite being fully fused (therefore from an adult) and the condyles (the bumps that make the top of the knee) are too similar in size – humans have a bigger condyle on the inside of the knee.
However, the general shape is quite similar to a human femur – the depth and orientation of the condyles and the groove between them is all wrong for a quadrupedal animal and the femoral head and neck (the articulation at the top that goes into the hip) are at an angle and shape similar to that seem in humans.
There were some great observations and suggestions and I was pleased that henstridgesj managed to get the same identification as I finally decided on, with Matt King making a very similar suggestion. I think it’s the femur of a Continue reading
This week I’m giving you a genuine mystery object – it was found in the collections without any kind of label or identification:
I’m pretty sure I know what it’s from, but I’d really appreciate your thoughts, in case I’m missing something. Cheers!
This week I have a skull for you that should be easy to identify to the family level, but may prove a tad more tricky to the species:
As usual you can put your suggestions, comments and suggestions below. Good luck!
As promised, last Friday’s mystery object turned out to be easy:
The very first reply by Gerry gave the correct species and every subsequent suggestion was for the same animal.
With those huge razor-like incisors and canines what could this be other than a Continue reading
This Friday I have a pretty straightforward mystery object for you. I was going to make it difficult by giving you an image of the specimen without the skull attached, but I am at a NatSCA meeting in Leeds today, so I probably won’t get much chance to provide clues during the day (although I will do my best).
So what is this the skeleton of?
As usual you can put your answers below (using clever clues if possible) – I will try my best to respond. Good luck!
Huzzah, it’s Friday!
Here’s this week’s celebratory bit of dead critter from the Horniman Museum for you to identify:
I hope you have fun with it! As usual I will do my best to respond to your questions, observations and suggestions as the day goes on.
Good luck!
Last week’s object was a bit too difficult – passerine skeletons are tricky to identify. This week I have something a bit easier for you to identify:
Put your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
Below is Rachel’s follow-up guest post answer to last Friday’s challenging mystery object. Many thanks Rachel – it was a good one!
Well, I seem to have led you all a merry dance this week! Admittedly, it was sneaky to not include a scale bar or provide you with another view of the skull, but if I’d put the top view in I think it would have been game over in about five minutes…
As cromercrox so rightly pointed out, it is a bird skull. Many of the guesses tended towards water birds, with suggestions including goose, gull, and rail.
Manabu Sakamoto was the first to suggest a ratite, and later tentatively guessed ostrich, while Matt King went for a rhea.
Paolo and I actually thought it might be a rhea to start with, but after comparing it to an identified rhea skull in the collections and the ratite images on Skullsite, we decided that it is in fact an Continue reading
This week I’m handing over to a colleague, crossword competitor and member of the Mystery Object community, Rachel:
Welcome to my first (and hopefully not last) guest Friday Mystery Object. I hope what I’ve chosen isn’t too glaringly easy; if it is, please feel free to allow yourself a smug smile and a pat on the back, but do try to resist shouting out the answer until Sunday so as not to spoil the game for others. Cryptic clues are much more fun.
Today’s object is, as usual, from the collections of the Horniman Museum. I will hopefully be available over the weekend to offer feedback on suggestions or questions, and I’ll provide the answer on Monday.
Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this object (from the NHM) to identify:
It was a bit of a tricky one for those of you who haven’t seen the First Time Out exhibition (jackashby and David Godfrey obviously did see it). This fossil skull looks like it belonged to some kind of pig rather than a primate – yes, that’s right, I said primate.
The main feature visible here that indicates that this skull may belong to a primate is the enclosed orbit, which isn’t a particularly strong characteristic since various ungulates also have an enclosed orbit – as I said, it’s a tricky one.
The type of primate is the Koala Lemur Megaladapis edwardsi Forsyth Major, 1894 from Madagascar. It was an arboreal, slow moving, gorilla-sized folivore – with superficial similarities to Koalas (hence the name). It is hypothesised that the extended bony nasal region may have supported a prehensile top lip, that would have been beneficial when foraging for leaves in the trees.
I won’t go into much detail here, because other curators have provided their interpretation for this object as part of the First Time Out project, so I will leave you with a link to that information. However, I would be interested in taking a closer look at the dentition and complete skeleton of one of these animals – I’d like to get a better grip on this apparent convergence on a suid cranial morphology and more gorilla-like body. I wonder what it might have looked like?
This week I’ll give you one that’s probably way too easy, but it’s a fascinating specimen:
As usual you can leave your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to reply. Good luck!
It seems that Friday’s mystery object led you on a merry chase.
Not a Crab-eating Raccoon!
This skull clearly perplexed everyone, given the number of suggestions and guesses that were made. Representatives of pretty much every major carnivore family were suggested.
Peter Harrison was the first to suggest a species from the right genus on the label (the slightly stuck-up looking nasals are can be a good clue that you’re looking at a procyonid) and Styracosaurus Rider made a good observation about the dentition. Eventually the correct answer on the label came from henstridgesj, backed up by Rachel, Styracosaurus Rider and David – it’s allegedly a Continue reading
This week I’ve decided to go back to mammal skulls. Any idea what this belonged to?
N.B. length of skull approx 12-13cm
As usual you can leave your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll try to provide some pointers. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this chunky object to identify:
It proved more of a challenge than I expected and I think that may be because I included a scale bar. Normally it’s the other way round – the scale bar helps rule out options based on size, but on this occasion it seems to have thrown a spanner in the works.
Clare P came close when she suggested a Pygmy Hippo and Jack Ashby, Matt King (sort of) and Styracosaurus Rider backed up that identification, but henstridgesj came closest with the suggestion of ‘Embryonic Hippo’.
This is actually the right front leg of a juvenile Continue reading
This week we have a mystery object chosen by Melita and Laura who shadowed me on Wednesday as I worked in the Horniman’s collections:
It’s another bird and given last week’s impressive identification skills I expect that several of you will get this in no time.
As usual you can leave your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this specimen to identify:
I thought that it might prove a difficult one, but it seems I should have had more faith in the identification skills of my readers (you talented bunch), since the correct answer was delivered with little ado.
The long legs suggested that it was a wading bird to curatorialtrainee and Harry then tentatively suggested what turned out to be the correct answer, which was consolidated by the observations of henstridgesj and the input of David. Jake also spotted what bird this was by comparing the skull to the images on the very useful skullsite.com Continue reading
Last week’s bird was so popular I thought I’d give you another to identify this week. It’s a bit harder than last week’s Kookaburra and I’ll be very impressed indeed if anyone gets it to species, but I’m sure many of you will manage to identify it to family level.
I will be teaching young folk about skulls and mermaids at Camp Quest in Somerset this Friday, so I might not get a chance to respond to comments, although I’ll do my best.
Good luck!
