On Friday I gave you a bit of a tricky mystery object to identify:
I thought it might prove a tricky one and judging by many of the responses I wasn’t wrong. However, I was impressed by the speed with which the archaeologists managed to work it out – in particular Lena, Pocki and Robin.
This piece of bone is the Continue reading
Today I have a mystery object that I think may provide a challenge – although I’ve said that before and been proven wrong:
Any ideas what this grooved object might be? You can leave your comments, questions and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this odd-looking piece of bone to identify:
It’s something I tentatively identified a couple of weeks ago and thought you might be able to add your ideas, to make sure I wasn’t missing something. Jake was quick off the mark in suggesting it was the ear bone of a Whale, which is what I thought when I first saw it. This fitted with the large size and high density of the bone, but on closer inspection it doesn’t quite match any of the Whales.
There were a few other ideas, but none that really matched the specimen, except for a suggestion from henstridgesj that it may come from a member of the Trichechidae, which agreed with my identification of Continue reading
This Friday I have this piece of bone I had to identify a couple of weeks ago, that I would be keen to have your thoughts on:
I know what it is and I think I know what it’s from, but any fresh ideas would be much appreciated!
Apologies for the late posting of the mystery object answer, I’m at a conference in Edinburgh and I didn’t get a chance to write until now.
On Friday I gave you this bird skull to identify:
I thought it might be an easy one, but I was hoping to catch a few people out, which use exactly what happened.
This skull is a nice example of morphological convergence – looking a lot like a Pigeon skull, but it is actually the skull of a Continue reading
This week I have another bird skull for identification from my big box of assorted bone. It’s probably a bit too easy, but hopefully it’ll still be fun:
Any idea what it is?
As usual, you can put your comments, questions and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this fragment of bill to identify:
It’s quite distinctive in shape, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when so many of you came to the same conclusion as I did about what it was from. As it is, everyone recognised this as being part of the bill from a member of the Phalacrocoracidae (Cormorant family). Well done everybody!
There are around 40 species of Cormorant, so getting this to species is a bit more tricky and a few possibilities were mooted. However, the two which best fit the shape and size of this bill are the Little Black Cormorant Phalacrocorax sulcirostris and the European Shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis. A quick comparison of the two on the excellent SkullSite.com (P. sulcirostris and P. aristotelis) show that the bill proportions and shape of the bony palate in the mystery specimen are closest to the Continue reading
Apologies for the slightly late mystery object this week – blame Dara O’Briain, who I went to see in Hammersmith last night.
This week I have another specimen that came from the mixed box of bits for you to identify. Any idea what this beak is from?
As usual you can put your comments, questions and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this pair of bones to identify:
It didn’t take long for the type of bone to be identified, with Anthony Wilkes immediately spotting that these are the quadrates of a bird. Then things got more tricky as the type of bird became the focus of the identification.
Robin was the first to recognise the family and likely type of bird, with henstridgesj concurring, with the agreement being on these quadrates being from a Continue reading
This week I’ve got two bits of bone (photographed to show the shape from each side) that I identified at work last week – can you work out what these are and what animal they’re from?
As usual you can put your suggestions, comments and questions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this specimen to identify:
It was one of those specimens that if you’d seen one before it was easy, if not it’s quite hard to work out.
In gross shape the skull has some similarities to that of a reptile, perhaps something like a Monitor lizard (albeit a little narrower). However, it actually belongs to a fish.
Cam Weir recognised this and managed to identify the kind of fish to genus and then species level, along with henstridgesj, 23thorns, Barbara Powell and Robin. Leigh and Ethan were also in the right ball-park with their identifications. This is the skull of the Continue reading
This week I thought I’d give you another object that I had to identify from a mixed box of specimens:
Any idea what this skull might have belonged to?
You can put 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:
As I suspected, the distinctive shape of the skull makes this specimen easily recognisable as an owl (family Strigiformes). However, there are a couple of hundred species of owl, so there were plenty of possibilities to make a more specific identification.
This specimen has quite a distinctive slope to the forehead in profile view and a very clear groove down the midline of the cranium, which combined with the length of around 58mm narrowed down the likely suspects considerably.
Jake was the first to suggest the species I think it’s most likely to be, with palaeosam suggesting the other possible option and RH cautiously suggesting both. This skull belongs to an owl in the genus Continue reading
This week I’ve been doing identifications from boxes of old specimens that haven’t been looked at for some time. Here’s one of the specimens that came out:
It should be a fairly straightforward one to identify to family level, but can you work out what species it is? Cryptic answers appreciated, to keep the game fun for everyone. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this object to identify:
It was a bit of a tricky one at first, because there wasn’t much context to help identify it. Suggestions included a section through the skull of a horse or whale, but skullguy, henstridgesj and Jake managed to spot enough clues to work out that it’s a section through the bill of a Continue reading
Late nights and early starts do not make for blogging joy…
Any idea what this week’s mystery object might be?
I’ll be at a meeting in lovely Liverpool today, but I’ll do my best to respond to any comments. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this great skull from the Grant Museum of Zoology to identify:
A big list of you (Mieke Roth, Jake, mcarnall, Anthony wilkes, 23thorns, Cam Weir, henstridgesj, Rhea, leigh and Robin) managed to work out what this specimen was from and there were some really interesting explanations about how you came to your conclusions in response to Steven D. Garber’s comment:
Now, I’d like it even more if people explained why this skull looks the way it does.
This is a really interesting thing to consider, as it underlies the process of recognition and identification. As a biologist I might start by saying that the lacrimal foramina is on the edge of the orbit (as henstridgesj pointed out) which is indicative of a marsupial and that the dentition is indicative of a carnivorous mammal that isn’t a member of the placental Carnivora as it lacks carnassials, plus the dental formula appears to be ‘primitive’ from the photo ?.1.3.4/?.1.2.4 which narrows down the possibilities to just a few marsupial carnivores, and given the scale of the skull there is just one that fits the bill.
However, if I’m honest I’d say that the overall shape and robust structure of this specimen is very similar to specimens I’ve seen before belonging to the Continue reading
I’ve not been working in the collections much over the summer, which means I’ve been relying on a stockpile of photos for the mystery object. I’ve finally run out of specimens from the Horniman this week, so I have a mystery object that I photographed at the fantastic Grant Museum of Zoology for you to have a go at identifying (apologies for the indifferent quality of the photo):
You can put your suggestions, questions and observations below (preferably in a cryptic format) and I’ll do my best to respond.
I’ll be back in the collections from next week, so there will be some fresh Horniman specimens coming to light!
This week I have an object for you to identify that I recently re-identified from the Horniman’s collections. Any idea what this is:
I’m at a conference today, so I may not be able to respond to questions and comments, but please feel free to ask them anyway and I’ll do my best to reply. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this object to identify:
It was a bit of a tricky one, since a few vertebrae aren’t a huge amount to go on. However, the large size helps narrow it down, as do the distinctively long neural spines.
As Ric Morris and henstridgesj spotted, the vertebrae are very compressed, not providing much scope for movement, suggesting an animal that relies on a rigid backbone for support and transferring large forces. This is not something you see in whales (at least not after the cervical and first few thoracic vertebrae), since water supports their weight and they maintain some flexibility in their spine for changing their orientation in the water when swimming. That leaves us with very few terrestrial mammals big enough to have vertebrae of this size – particularly considering that these vertebrae are from a juvenile animal.
The neural spines are long, but not laterally flattened. This suggests that they are not from a large Buffalo, Hippopotamus or Rhinoceros, since all of these animals have their neural spines orientated as a dorsal blade. The only animal of the right size that has dorso-ventrally flattened neural spines in the mid-thoracic region (that I’m aware of) is the Continue reading
Zygoma 