On Friday I gave you this unidentified object from the Horniman’s collections and asked for your help in identifying it:
Suggestions ranged from the Easter Bunny (topical) to Dangermouse (fantastic), but there was a remarkably fast convergence of opinion on what this is.
Jamie Revell, Barbara Powell, henstridgesj and Jake all came to the conclusion that this is the skull of a Continue reading
This week I have a genuine mystery object for you. I just stumbled across a couple of big boxes of unidentified skulls and bits of bone, so you can help me work out what some of these things might be from. To start with we have this skull:
Please put your suggestions, comments and questions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Enjoy – and have a nice Easter!
On Friday I was in rather a rush as I was involved in co-organising this year’s Natural Science Collections Association (or NatSCA) conference. It was a very enjoyable (if hectic) few days of natural history nerdery, but left me limited time to select an object from the FMO. I took my opportunity at the drinks reception at the Grant Museum of Zoology where I tried out the camera on my new phone to get an image of this specimen:
Now it was a fairly easy one to identify as the skull of these animals is very distinctive. Nonetheless, if you haven’t seen the skull of one of these animals before it is a bit of an oddity, with that spike in the face and the apparently strongly protruding maxilla and mandible (which is actually due to unusually elevated frontals). Continue reading
This week I’ve been rather swamped with co-organising the Natural Science Collections Association conference, so I haven’t had much time to think of a good mystery object from the Horniman’s collections. However, here is a nice (if somewhat distinctive) specimen from the excellent Grant Museum of Zoology for you to identify:
Any idea what it is?
You can put your comments below and I’ll do my best to respond, as the opportunity arises. Best of luck!
On Friday I gave you this skull to identify:
I thought it would be an easy one and I wasn’t wrong, although several of you seemed to second-guess my intentions and assumed that I was trying to trick you because it seemed too easy.
The small second incisors (or peg-teeth) just behind the big first incisors were a complete give-away for the group of animals this skull came from – the Lagomorphs, which Jake spotted immediately.
Henstridgesj, Jamie Revell, Debi Linton and Jake all suggested that it came from a Continue reading
This week I have another skull for you to identify. Any idea what animal this might belong to?
As usual, I will do my best to respond to any questions or comments that you leave below. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this object to identify:
It didn’t prove to be all that difficult, perhaps since the skull is distinctive in having the general appearance of a ruminant (in particular it is missing the upper incisors), but it also has canines and is very small, with a skull height of just over 5cm. This slightly unusual mixture of characters suggests one of the more primitive ruminants.
Jake suggested it might be a Muntjac or Chinese Water Deer, but as Lena pointed out, Muntjac (and Chinese Water Deer) have a scent gland in front of the eye (called a preorbital gland) that is housed in a big pocket in the skull. The skull itself is also a bit small even for a Muntjac.
Jack Ashby, Lena, Barbara Powell and Jamie Revell all managed to work out that this skull was from a member of the family Tragulidae. To be more specific it is from a Continue reading
This week I thought I’d give you a skull to identify – probably a bit too easy, but it’s a nice specimen!
Pop you questions comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this object to identify:
The idea was to provide a sense of how tricky it can be to identify bits of postcranial bone, even fairly characteristic bits like the humerus (which is what this is).
There were various suggestions, with sheep, goat and deer all getting a mention, but henstridgesj and Jake both got the same identification as the collector when they suggested Continue reading
Postcranial bones are found more often than skulls, but they can be harder to identify since they don’t have such diagnostic characteristics (like teeth). So, any idea what this piece of postcranial skeleton is and what it comes from?
As usual you can put your answers below and I will do my best to respond (within my technological and temporal constraints). I’m sure some of the other biology types will be willing and able to give guidance. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this mystery object to identify:
Unfortunately I was unable to respond to comments on Friday, as my laptop had to go in for repairs and my phone has reached the end of its useful life as an internet device after 4 years faithful service. For the answer this week I had to drag out my old laptop, which has meant 2 hours of twiddling thumbs as the machine started up and dealt with various updates…
In some ways it was a good thing that I wasn’t able to comment, since it would have ruined the fun from the outset. Jake was straight in there, wondering if it was really as easy as it looked – and it was. Rachel, Jack Ashby and Barbara Powell also plumped for the right answer, while several others came very close when they went for a greedy relative. This is in fact the skull of a juvenile Continue reading
This week I have another skull for you to identify:
Any idea what this is from?
As usual you can make your suggestions, comments and questions below. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this skull to identify:
I think the oddly inflated and positioned auditory bullae make this look like Gary Oldman in his role as Dracula. Because of this characteristically odd feature the specimen was fairly easy to identify. Of course, that supposes that most people have seen the skull of one of these animals before…
Here is the skull in better detail (for future reference):
The front teeth were a good indication that it was a rodent (we’ve talked about that before) and with the big and upward pointing external auditory meatus (better known as ear-hole) it suggested a very big-eared rodent.
With a skull length of about 7cm the number of possible rodents decreased quite rapidly, as most are much too small to have such a big skull, so I wasn’t surprised when Barbara Powell and David Craven hinted that they had the answer. From then on I started getting cryptic answers about warm fur and cold faces as more of you worked out that this is the skull of a Continue reading
[N.B. The answer to the mystery object will be a little late this week, as I won’t have internet access – expect the answer on Tuesday!]
This week I have a mystery object that will probably prove very easy to identify, since it has quite a distinctive shape:
It looks a bit like Gary Oldman’s portrayal of Dracula to me, but do you know what species this skull is from?
As usual you can put your questions, comments and suggestions below. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this object to identify:
I thought it might prove quite tricky, yet several of you managed to work out what it was and which animal it came from.
Jake spotted that it was from a young animal – as you can see from the unfused ends of the bone. He also noticed that it was a bit of a strange shape, a bit like a tibia, but actually a radius.
Barbara Powell suggested that it belonged to an animal built for power rather than speed and henstridgesj suggested one such critter – the Aardvark. Although that wasn’t right, or even close in terms of evolutionary relationships, it was very close from the perspective of functional adaptations.
After that it was a short step to the same answer that I decided on when I had to identify this piece of bone. Barabara Powell, henstridgesj and Steven D. Garber, PhD all converged on the answer of Continue reading
This Friday I’ve decided to really challenge your identification skills with a single bone that I found in the Horniman’s collections.
There was no information of any kind with this specimen, although the material it shared a box with was acquired from the King’s College Comparative Zoology collection. That means that it could be from pretty much any animal on the planet. What do you think it is? (N.B. since it is tricky I’ve given you an image from every angle.)
As usual, you can put your questions, comments and suggestions below and I’ll do my best to respond during the day. Good luck (I think you may need it).
On Friday I gave you a very nice specimen from the Horniman Museum to identify:
I chose this partly because it’s a great mount and partly because I needed to check the identification, which was out of date.
You all did a great job of breaking down the various options – and there were a few. Jake made the comment:
Is it dippy or a bit ruff ?
This I took as a question about whether the specimen was a Kangaroo Rat (of the genus Dipodomys) or a Rufous Rat-kangaroo (Aepyprymnus rufescens). There was another interpretation that fit with the dippy clue – the correct Family name, which is Dipodidae.
Barbara Powell and Jamie Revell were in the right area and henstridgesj suggested J.j. which was pretty much there, assuming he meant Jaculus jaculus. It is in fact the skeleton of the Continue reading
This week I have a rather nice specimen for you to identify:
Any idea what this skeleton comes from?
As usual you can leave your suggestions, comments and questions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck!
Friday’s mystery object was meant to be a bit of a challenge:
Post-cranial bones can be tricky to identify, especially if you don’t have much comparative material available.
The first challenge was to work out which bits of bone are present – something that Rhea and Jake managed very well. This particular specimen is composed of a broken portion of right mandible (showing the coronoid process, condyloid process and angular process), the left ilium, and the first three cervical vertebrae (which include the axis and atlas bones).
Identifying the species was a bit more tricky using just these few bits of bone, but several of you managed to get there. Henstridgesj was the first to suggest Continue reading
Last week’s mystery object was a bit too easy, so this week I’m giving you more of a challenge:
Can you work out what these bones are and which animal they’re from?
I’ll do my best to respond to your questions, comments and suggestions if you put them below. Good luck!
Zygoma 