Apologies for the slightly late posting today – it was out Xmas Party last night and an early start was simply beyond me. Another skull, but a bit trickier than last week:
I will try to answer questions and respond to your suggestions during the day, so put them below. Good luck!
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
This week I probably won’t be able to respond to comments on the mystery object as I’m in Liverpool at a conference about Dinosaurs (yay!), but I have a feeling you’ll get this without any help from me, as it’s pretty distinctive:
Good luck!
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 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!
An easy mystery object this week, to make up for last week’s rather difficult spirit-scaring firebird:
Any idea what this skull belonged to?
As usual you can put your (preferably cryptic) suggestions, observations and questions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this complete skeleton to identify:
As I expected, you managed to identify it in no time, with excellent use of hints and clues to get the answer across without spoiling the fun.
John the Hutch was the first to get it right (and was in fact the first to respond) with Carlos, henstridgesj, Jake, Henry Gee and Julie Doyle also recognising that this was the skeleton of 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!
On Friday I gave you this skull to identify:
Jake spotted that this was a marsupial’s skull straight away and many of you suggested Kangaroo using a variety of crafty clues. There was also a well reasoned suggestion of Koala that fell just a little short.
Obenedo missed the correct answer by a hair(y nose) but got the right type of animal, as did jonpaulkaiser, Matt King, Jake and Cromercrox.
Neil managed to go that little bit further and get the right species – Continue reading
Apologies for the rather late answer to last Friday’s mystery object – it’s been a hectic few days!
I asked you to identify this skull
which you managed to do very quickly.
The first suggestion of a Vulture by Rosa Rubicondior was along completely the right lines, while KK and Steven D. Garber, PhD suggested a Turkey Vulture – which isn’t quite right, but it’s in the same genus – Cathartes.
From there, Julie Doyle and Jake managed to get the correct species identification of Continue reading
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!
On Friday I gave you this object to identify:
Rather unusually no-one managed to identify it. It’s not native to the UK and looks similar to quite a large variety of other species, because it’s a member of the Passeriformes (the perching birds), which is a hugely diverse and numerous group of birds. These factors make identifying the bird tricky, but without the plumage there to provide clues it was a very difficult task.
The plumage would have been a big help here, since the name of this bird is taken largely from a description of the plumage.
As you can probably work out from the photo above, it’s a Long-tailed Glossy Starling Lamprotornis caudatus (Statius Muller, 1776).
These tropical African birds are similar in diet and habits to the European Starling that we see more commonly – they just look a lot prettier.
Following on from Rachel’s difficult guest object last week, I have another bird for you to identify:
(N.B. the skull is 53mm long)
Any ideas what it is?
As usual, 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’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
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’s mystery object is a bit more chunky than the birds of the last few weeks:
Any idea what it is?
As usual you can leave your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
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
Zygoma 