It’s time for the Good Friday mystery object (the Good relating to the name of the Friday, rather than the quality of the object…). Jumping on board the festive bandwagon, here’s an Easter themed object for you to identify:
I know they’re eggs, but can you work out what laid them?
As usual, put your suggestions and questions in the comments section below and I will do my best to answer.
Good luck!
Crumbs – rather inundated with comments about last Friday’s mystery object! Apologies for not answering all of the questions, the sudden leap in comments coincided with a particularly hectic day where I had virtually no computer access. The comments were wide ranging, from cannonballs to turtle eggs, truffles to coprolites (fossil dung), burnt cooking/toys to a bezoar. One of my favourites was the fossilised fist of a wood elf – and I can sort of see the similarity:
However, I am almost sad to say that it is none of the above. There were a few answers that came close, Don C suggested a concretion, Solius suggested mineral crystals, SmallCasserole identified that it was mineralised with a radial pattern, but one person had this hammered – Jeremy was spot on with with an identification of Continue reading
Last Friday’s mystery object was this formidable looking lower jaw chosen by my volunteer Cat:
I asked you to tell me what this was from and you haven’t disappointed! Cromercrox led the charge by deftly discounting it as being from a tetrapod – and even after an attempt at obfuscation on my part he identified that it was from “some mutha of a fish”. Jack Ashby jumped in with the correct suggestion that it was from a perciform fish and Jim slammed home with the correct answer of Continue reading
After last week’s exceptionally tricky object I’ve decided to give you something that should prove a challenge, but which will hopefully be a bit more straightforward than the last one: Continue reading
Friday’s mystery object was a tricky one:
Suggestions for an identification ranged from earwax to fungi, from a monstrous gall stone to diseased bone. The first ranging shot from Gimpy (It looks like bone that has been calcified or has some sort of tumour growing on it. It also seems to have … no internal blood vessels or marrow) was actually very close and I thought this would be nailed in short order, but perhaps my evasive answer put people off the scent more effectively than I had intended. Eventually the one person who has managed to guess all of the correct elements is Jake – so a hearty round of applause to our youngest contributor! It is in fact a section of Continue reading
This Friday I have a real identification challenge that I came across in the collections at the Horniman that I would like to share with you: Continue reading
The mystery object on Friday was chosen by Taylor, a work experience student who assisted me in the collections last week. He picked a particularly tricky specimen:
However, I am pleased to say that Jake immediately spotted that it was a skull that had been sectioned and after some questions and some close guesstimates by Henry Gee (who was working through the various families within the Carnivora), it was eventually correctly identified by Jeremy, who worked out that it was in fact from a Continue reading
On Friday Dr David Waterhouse presented a guest mystery object from a beach on the Norfolk coast near Cromer:
There were some interesting ideas about what it might be, ranging from oil-spill residue (Gimpy) to shark egg-case (SmallCasserole), but Henry Gee managed to correctly identify the specimen as being a Continue reading
Friday is upon us once again. This week I am handing over to my esteemed colleague Dr. Dave Waterhouse from the Norwich Castle Museum to provide the mystery object for this week… Continue reading
On Friday I showed you a photo of one of my house guests from last year and asked you what it was:
Body approx. 2cm long
Obviously it’s a spider; the eight legs, two body segments and massive chelicera are a dead give-away, but what kind of spider is it? Jim identified it immediately (typical of a know-it-all biologist) as a Continue reading
On Friday I gave you a bit of an oddity from the collections of the Horniman Museum to identify:
Friday again and here is another peak at some of the funky stuff I get to work with behind the scenes at the Horniman Museum. This is a specimen without a label from one of our cupboards – any idea what it might be?
As usual suggestions in the comments section below – I will do my best to answer any questions, but since my Google phone has died I can only respond when in front of a computer, so patience may be required. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this tricky mystery object to identify:
It presented quite a challenge for everyone, but eventually Dave Godfrey managed to get the correct identification. Believe it or not, this is part of the skull of a Continue reading
Friday again and I am ready to show you some of the stuff I have found buried deep in the stores building of the Horniman Museum as I work to identify, organise and document our osteological (that’s bone) collections. Any idea what this odd looking thing is?:
As usual answers below in the comments section and feel free to ask questions – I will do my best to respond!
On Friday I presented you with this mystery object:
This specimen is one of 14 of the same species that we have in the Study Collections Centre at the Horniman Museum. Myself and a collegue (Steve, king of knots) recently remounted all of our trophy plates on steel mesh, using steel S-hooks, plastazote foam and archival tape restraints and supports. The outcome has been very satifactory:
Unfortunately, most of these specimens have been donated from private collections where the information has not been retained with the specimen, so I have had to identify pretty much all of these trophies. The one I showed you on Friday is most likely to be a Continue reading
It’s Friday again, so that means it’s time for a mystery object! Any idea what this is?
I’ve recently been through the process of identifying, organising and remounting the antlers and game heads in the Horniman’s stores building (it looks really good now!). It turns out that most of the deer antlers we have belong to one species – the one pictured above in fact. Can you identify it and do you notice anything unusual about the one in the picture?
Put your answers and any questions in the comments section below. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this scrawny looking bird to identify:
The beak (and feet) gave away that it is a parrot (or psittaciform as the parrots are known to ornithologists and the taxonomically minded), which was immediately recognised by SmallCasserole shortly followed by Debi Linton. SmallCasserole suggested “parakeet” which I suppose could be accepted as a correct identification since they are called “parakeets” by Americans, but it took Jim to identify it more specifically – it is of course a Continue reading
A quick and blurry mystery object today as I am in a rush!
about 7cm high
So what is it? Put your answers below and I’ll respond to any questions whenever I get the opportunity.
Good luck!
Last Friday’s mystery object was this:
This roughly spherical object represents my most frequently occurring enquiry at the Horniman Museum – people find these all the time and they are always convinced that they are something extraordinary. It is of course a Continue reading
This Friday I have decided to give you a mystery object that I have to deal with on a regular basis. Something that I get more enquiries about than anything else. Do you know what this is?
Your only clues are that they come in a range of sizes and they are often found on the South Coast of England by walkers.
As usual, answers below – I will do my best to respond to questions, but I have a submission deadline looming for corrections on a paper, so I may be a bit tied up. Good luck!
Zygoma 