Tag Archives for mystery object

Friday mystery object #41 answer

On Friday I gave you this formidable looking object to identify:

Many  suggestions related to the saw-like appearance of this object, proposing either a human-made saw or the rostrum (nose) of a saw-fish (which are endangered cartilaginous fish of the genus Pristis). The closest answers all made reference to the articulation at the end of this object, which is the significant clue as to what this object is – the “teeth” are just secondary details.

Jake was the first to come close, followed by Kevin the epic and KateV, who gave a sensible mechanical breakdown of the likely use of this element. I’m not all that surprised to say that this week no-one worked out that the mystery object is a Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #41

It’s hard to believe that it’s a year ago today that I started this blog – how time flies! The mystery object didn’t start until four months in and I strongly feel that it provides the backbone of the blog. So here is my forty-first mystery object – I hope you enjoy trying to work out what it is (whatever it might be, it looks pretty vicious):

As usual put your suggestions and questions below and I will do my best to answer (without giving it away). The answer will be posted on Monday.

Good luck!

Friday mystery object #38 answer

Friday’s object was this exploded skull:
I identified it as a hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus Linnaeus, 1758 based on comparison with the skull (particularly the lower jaw) of a specimen that I had as a mystery object last August:

My guess is that the specimen was probably a fairly young adult, since most of the fragmentation of the skull is along suture lines. However, the disarticulation is greater than would be expected simply from a poorly fused specimen, so it looks like damage has also been sustained. Since the delicate nasal turbinates are still intact and in place, I expect the damage probably happened when they were still protected by soft tissue – making me suspect that it happened before the animal was skeletonised. Given the susceptibility of hedgehogs to getting run over, I expect that this individual was killed on the road by a glancing blow to the head that loosened teeth and sutures. I’m pleased to say that Jake agreed with my identification and cause of death for this specimen, so a hearty congratulations to him!

Friday mystery object #38

This week I am going to give you a genuine mystery object – something from the collections of the museum that has no identification. I have been dealing with a few of these sorts of things recently whilst organising the osteological (that’s bone) store.

Often specimens have been acquired in a big batch, which invariably means that there will be a box left at the end which contains the jumbled and broken bits and pieces that have lost information or have been separated from the rest of a specimen during the move from their old home, or at sometime in the distant past.

Here’s one such specimen:

(click for larger image)

Do you have any idea what this exploded skull might belong to – and why it might be exploded?

As usual post your suggestions below. I might not be able to answer any questions this week, because I’m off to Norway to visit a good friend I don’t see often enough in Trondheim. Who knows, next week I may have a Norwegian mystery object for you to identify… Good luck!

Friday mystery object #37b

Since it’s Easter I’ve decided to make the Good Friday mystery object a bit more of an Easter egg hunt, so expect a posts during the day every few hours with new eggs for you to identify. So what about this:

I will try to answer questions requesting clarification about an aspect of the natural history of the animal that produced the various eggs, but I won’t let on if the answers are correct. I hope you enjoy this slight twist on my usual format!

Friday mystery object #37a

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!

Friday mystery object #36 answer

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 →

Friday mystery object #35 answer

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 →

Friday mystery object #33 answer

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 →

Friday mystery object #32 answer

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 mystery object #29

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!