Tag Archives for Natural history

Friday mystery object #127 answer

Apologies for a somewhat belated answer to last week’s mystery object – Christmas and all that…

I gave you these two unidentified objects from the Horniman Museum collections, so you could have a go at identifying them:

I was not disappointed either – Jake recognised that they were upper molars or premolars from a grazing animal and Rhea identified the animal in this cryptic clue:

If the owner of these teeth could market and sell a coffee, would it be interested in a label with a *unicorn* mascot that comes in the sumatran or javan blends? Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #126 answer

On Friday I gave you a bit of a tricky mystery object in the shape of this partial skull:

I wasn’t expecting anyone to get it without some clues, but I underestimated my talented audience!

Jake spotted that it was a mammal based on the ear morphology and then worked out what kind of animal based on clues from henstridgesj who suggested seal and Julie Doyle, who managed to not only identify the species, but drop this lovely cryptic clue to convey that information:

Not a lot to phocus on, but……. I’m harboring an idea about who it might be. Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #125 answer

On Friday I gave you a bit of a tricky mystery object:

Jackashby spotted that the skull is from a bat and Rob Hinkley did a bit of research while on a trip to the Horniman and was able to identify what the specimen is labelled as. Apparently it’s a  Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #123 answer

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 →

Friday mystery object #122 answer

On Friday I gave you this object to identify:

As I suspected, everyone spotted that this skull belonged to a member of the Cat family (the Felidae). However, cats are very conservative (as Julie Doyle pointed out) – their skulls all tend to look much the same, which made it hard to identify the species.

This skull is even trickier to identify than it might have been because it comes from a young animal, so it hasn’t reached the full size or development that you might expect from an adult.

Nonetheless, several of you suggested cats from the same genus and henstridgesj worked out that it was between two species. It is in fact the skull of a  Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #121 answer

Apologies for the late posting and brevity of the FMO answer today, I’m not feeling at all well.

On Friday I gave you something a bit more ‘taxing’ than the previous week’s mystery object:

Some of you spotted the clue hidden in my statement and Bubba, Carlos, Will, Neil, henstidgesj and Julie Doyle all implied or identified that this as the skull of Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #120 answer

As promised, last Friday’s mystery object turned out to be easy:

The very first reply by Gerry gave the correct species and every subsequent suggestion was for the same animal.

With those huge razor-like incisors and canines what could this be other than a  Continue reading →

Friday mystery object #118 answer

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 →

Friday mystery object #118

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!

Friday mystery object #116 answer

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 →