Tag Archives for skull

Friday mystery object #545 answer(ish)

Last week, I gave you an object from the Dead Zoo that presents a genuine mystery:

This premaxilla and fragment of maxilla came to light from beneath one of the cases, which was being dismantled to allow furniture conservation work to take place to support the redevelopment of the building.

The narrow tip of the premaxilla and small size immediately put me in mind of a small browsing antelope species that might daintily pick a new growth leaves from thorny scrub.

That shape is quite distinctive – allowing multiple species to be discounted, but I’ve been struggling to find anything that quite matches this piece of skull.

Joe Vans made a similar comment, referencing the small size and Duiker-like proportions, but different details of this object.

Frustratingly, many of the resources that used to be available online that offered well identified antelope skulls for reference and keys for identification seem to no longer exist (e.g. the Mammals of Tanzania and Animal Diversity Web), and the various AI search algorithms that seem to be all that is now available seem to have deteriorated in quality to the point that they can no longer find niche websites with sufficiently detailed scientific content, preferring instead to route searches to Etsy, Pinterest and Amazon.

So it looks like I’ll need to track an identification for this specimen down by using more time-intensive old school methods, like checking comparative specimens (something I sadly don’t have much opportunity to do these days as my role has become more managerial and my opportunities to work in the collections are almost non-existent).

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t still great resources out there – John Rochester’s Flickr is a constant source of great quality images for reference, and I was delighted to discover a new one the other day, in the form of the Skull Index, so maybe there is still hope for online osteology, but none of these cover small African antelope species just yet.

Grumbles aside, I’ve managed to rule out Suni, Oribi, and most species of Duiker and Dik-dik. There are some Grysbok that need further consideration and Steenbok isn’t off the table, so at least I may have been able to narrow down the search. Of course, the best way to refine it more is to hear what from other people who may recognise something, so if you have an idea of what this might be from, then please do leave a comment below!

Friday mystery object #543 answer

Last week I gave you this mystery skull to have a go at identifying:

I suspected this one wouldn’t be too much of a challenge, and I wasn’t mistaken.

There were some great cryptic clues, ranging from Chris Jarvis’ references to a charming Jill Tomlinson book, to Adam Yates’ reference to the genus name and some possible members of that genus with names reflecting their habits/habitats:

Well when it grips its prey it certainly has a tight toe, but does it hang out in agricultural storage buildings or among the Poaceae?, I cannot say.

With “tight toe” being Tyto and the options being between Barn Owl and Grass Owls. This is one that hangs out in agricultural buildings – the Barn Owl Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769).

Barn owls have a distinctive headshape – longer than other owls, with a little bump on their forehead. However, I have to admit that I’m not familiar with the skulls of any of the Tytonidae species, and I’ve found it tricky to find good reference material online. If you know of any resources out there, I’d love to hear about it!

Friday mystery object #542 answer

Last week I gave you this skull to try your hand at identifying:

It’s not the easiest of tasks, as there are quite a lot of birds in this general size range and with this general shape of skull, so the overall outline from the top only helps narrow things down a little. It is worth noting that general proportions all suggest some kind of Passeriform.

The exact length of this specimen is 49mm, but as with all species, there is a bit of variation depending on subspecies, age, sex, quality of diet and other environmental factors. I suspect this one is a little on the small side for the species.

The side view offers another perspective on the bill morphology, which is looks quite generalist, perhaps a little on the gracile side, but not overly skinny. Given the size that puts me (and many who left a comment) in mind of something in the Thrush family.

It’s also worth noting that the bill sheath, while not very apparent, is still present (if it wasn’t you’d see small holes along the side of the bill, which are the blood vessels that supply the tissues that secrete the keratin of the bill sheath). This is a big clue, as the bill sheath is yellow.

For me that immediately put in my mind a very specific type of Thrush – the male Common Blackbird Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758.

This can be checked with reference to the excellent Skullsite resource, which provides a fantastic range of bird skulls with images from several different angles. Take a look at the underside of this specimen:

The posterior region of the palatine bones have quite a distinctive shape – flared and with a broad shallow notch at the posteriormost margin. If you compare this to other skulls in the genus Turdus, you’ll notice that the notch is almost absent in the Redwing, it has a much sharper outer angle in the Songthrush, it’s a lot deeper in the American Robin, it’s deeper and sharper in the Fieldfare, and so on. The important thing is that the palatine of the Blackbird on the Skullsite is still consistent with that of the mystery object.

While this feature takes a while to get familiar with, it can be quite helpful when narrowing down similar skulls like these. I hope that pointer proves useful!

Finally, I offer up congratulations to Adam Yates who not only got the correct identification, he also left a great cryptic clue to share that information. Bravo!

Friday mystery object #538 answer

Last week I gave you this mystery skull to try your hand at identifying:

It wasn’t quite as easy as it might at first seem, and it led to a great discussion in the comments section.

Several people were initially taken in by the shape, perhaps without considering the scale, as this looks very similar to our old friend the Tasmanian Devil:

Skull of Tasmanian Devil.

However, the mystery specimen is almost half the size of Tasmanian Devil. The similarities do offer a good clue of where to look for alternative identifications though. The Dasyuridae is a family of Marsupial carnivores that includes the Tasmanian Devil, a variety of small mouse-or-shrew-like forms (which a smaller with more pointy snouts that this), plus the members of the Genus Dasyurus – the Quolls.

The comments moved on to the Quolls quite quickly, with some discussion around whether this was the Spotted-tailed (or Tiger) Quoll or if it could be the Western Quoll. In the end, Kat Edmonson noticed a feature of the nasals to help distinguish which it was, and Adam Yates noticed a useful feature of the angular process of the lower jaw:

In the mystery specimen those processes that project inward on the mandible are “pronglike” but the Spotted-tailed Quoll they are more triangular.

So well done to everyone who worked out that this is the skull of a Western Quoll, Dasyurus geoffroii Gould, 1841. I hope you enjoyed the challenge!

Just to note, I’m currently at the Ulster Museum for the NatSCA conference – my annual opportunity to connect with other natural science collections and one of the highlights of my year! While I’m here I may see if there are any interesting obects I can find to use for future mystery objects – let’s see what I can find!

Friday mystery object #538

Before I share this week’s Friday mystery object, I’d like to just take a moment to mark the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough.

I think it’s fair to say that he is a national hero in the UK and the source of inspiration for generations of naturalists, thanks to his documentaries. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet the legend himself a couple of times, and he was even generous enough to lend his Elephant Bird egg to an exhibition I was involved in at the Horniman Museum over 10 years ago.

So here’s wishing a very happy century celebration to Sir David!

With that said, here is a nice skull for you to have a go at identifying – I’d love to hear your thoughts on what it might be:

Let me know what you think in the comments below, and I hope you have fun working it out!

Friday mystery object #528 answer

I hope you had an enjoyable Christmas! Last week I gave you this chonky skull as a mystery object to have a go at identifying:

It wasn’t anything particularly challenging or unusual, but it’s a very cool skull that we recently put on display in the Dead Zoo Lab in Dublin, and it’s nice to have a chance to share it here.

While Caimans did get a mention, pretty much everyone worked out that this is the skull of an Alligator – although which of the two living species it might be sparked some conversation.

In the words of Adam Yates:

Clues include snout shape and length, divided nostrils and lack of a lateral notch for receiving the big fangs from the lower jaw.

Excellent advice, although the simplest way I use to tell the difference is to check how much of a U-shape the maxilla forms. In this case it’s very U-shaped, which says American Alligator Alligator mississippiensis (Daudin, 1802).

An American Alligator by Postdlf, 2006

I’m keeping this answer brief for this mystery object, since I’m sitting at a dinner table with family after a fantastic – and very large – meal, so I’m struggling to be creative with all my blood rushing to my stomach rather than my brain.

I hope you had a great Christmas, and I look forward to sharing more mystery objects for you in 2026!

Friday mystery object #524 answer

Last week I gave you this skull from the collections of the Dead Zoo to have a go at identifying:

Bird skull identification can take a bit of work, until you get your eye in on things like the bill morphology (especially without the clues provided by the keratin sheath). Resources like the excellent Skullsite.com certainly help a lot, by providing a huge range of images of different species for comparison, and with tools to help narrow down options based on skull size and bill morphology.

As it turns out, Adam Yates certainly had his eye in, and he was first to comment with a correct identification for this specimen. It’s a Common or European Crane Grus grus (Linnaeus, 1758).

I chose this specimen as it’s one that we recently put on display in the Dead Zoo Lab as part of a community curated project called Our Irish Natural History. Eight community groups involved with iCAN (the Irish Community Archive Network) contributed to the work, which was coordinated by Adriana Ballinger – a fantastic postgraduate humanities researcher who has been working with us for the past year on a project with a focus on the wider cultural context surrounding natural history collections. The community groups involved each explored a different areas of interest, illustrating and exploring some of the connections between objects and local communities.

The Common Crane offered a fascinating topic explored by the Woodlawn Heritage Group and Galway Community Archaeology, who delved into the past history of the Crane in Ireland, and its importance to Bronze Age people, also touching on their recent return, with a pair of these fantastic birds recently recorded nesting in rewetted boglands. There’s too much information for me to cover it all here, so I recommend taking a look at the work for yourself on the Galway Community Archaeology web resource about the project.

These sorts of projects, that connect our ostensibly scientific objects back into local communities through a cultural link are a fantastic way to broaden the relevance and interest in our collections. As a scientist it can be easy to focus on one aspect of an object – but every item we look after can be viewed from multiple perspectives – all of which add value and relevance.

I look forward to working on similar projects in the future, while hopefully taking the opportunity to share more of the collection here, for those of you with an interest in identification!

Friday mystery object #506 answer

Last week I gave you a charismatic critter to have a go at identifying:

I only provided a close-up of the face of the specimen, since I didn’t want to make it too easy, and when you see the whole skeleton it’s pretty obvious which animal this is from:

This is, of course, a Pichiciago or Pink Fairy Armadillo Chlamyphorus truncatus Harlan, 1825.

These tiny Argentinan armadillos are incredibly cute, with their silky fine hair and huge forefeet with massive claws (all the better for burrowing, my dear), although it’s a little hard to see that from the skeleton, so here’s this specimen’s skin:

Several of you worked out what this was, but Adam Yates was the first to post the answer – so well done Adam.

One of the observations from Kat Edmonson was about the protuberences from the top of the skull – for which I’ve yet to find any functional explanation. It may be as simple as providing a structure to support the armoured shield over the head area, but it’s not present in other armadillo species, so I’m not sure how this would work.

Since this species burrows and spends a lot of time in the sand hunting for ants and insect larvae, it may be that the bony protrusions help channel sound to help with prey detection and predator avoidance – but that is pure speculation. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this feature!

Well done to everyone who worked out the identity of this mystery object – while it may be distinctive, it’s an unusual wee beastie.

Friday mystery object #505 answer

Last week I shared this specimen from the collections of the Dead Zoo, as it’s a good example of the type of specimen that will often turn up for identification:

If you didn’t recognise it, this is the braincase of a seal.

It’s not usual for seal skulls to be found in sections like this for a few reasons. One is that marine mammals tend to have quite open sutures in their skulls, presumably to help prevent issues with pressure during diving. Another is that young animals (with unfused skulls) will often be the ones that succumb to the rigours of nature. Finally, beaches are high energy environments, so skulls will often be rolled and broken up by wave action.

Knowing it’s a seal is useful, but there are over 30 species to choose between. However, Adam Yates spotted some useful information written on the specimen:

‘It looks like “Yellow Slrank 20/9/92” ???? I’m guessing a location and date, but Slrank? WTF is that?

Got it! Yellow Strand. It is a beach in Ireland.’ 

This really helps, since there are only a couple of species that are likely to be found in Ireland – the Grey Seal and the Harbour Seal.

It’s about the right size for a Harbour Seal, but the shape isn’t quite right. In particular, the frontals (that pair of bones that forms the skinny section that’s sticking out) aren’t skinny enough. There’s also a hint of muscle scars and unfused frontal-parietal sutures that suggest that the animal may be juvenile.

If that is the case (and I think it is), then I think this is most likely the skull of a young Grey Seal Halichoerus grypus (O. Fabricius, 1791). This was Adam Yate’s suggestion, supported by Kat Edmonson, so well done to them for picking up on that detail.

I hope you enjoyed that challenge – more to come next week!

Friday mystery object #497 answer

Last week I gave you this guest mystery object from Andy Taylor FLS (and now) FBNA to identify:

Image by Andy Taylor FLS FBNA, 2024.

It wasn’t a particularly difficult one, since that huge bill immediately narrows down the possibilities.

The spear-like bill shape is reminiscent of a heron’s, but it’s heavier – not quite as massive as something like a Marabou Stork, Adjutant, or Jabiru, but heavy nonetheless.

As Adam Yates noted, this is the skull of a White Stork Ciconia ciconia (Linnaeus, 1758) – the second mystery object in a row with the initials C. c. (the previous one being Crocuta crocuta).

When attempting to identify bird skulls, a hugely useful resource for reference is Skullsite, which is run by regular commentor on the blog, Wouter van Gestel – who referenced the White Stork with a comment relating to their reputation for the delivery of babies.

So well done to everyone who worked out the species, here and on Mastodon, Bluesky and LinkedIn – and my thanks to Andy for sharing another gem from his collection!

Friday mystery object #497

This week I have a guest mystery object for you, from avid naturalist and frequent contributor, Andy Taylor, FLS:

Image by Andy Taylor FLS, 2024.
Image by Andy Taylor FLS, 2024.
Image by Andy Taylor FLS, 2024.

I suspect that some of you will get this one easily, so it’s time to break out your creativity and let me know what you think it is with a cryptic clue.

I hope you have fun with it!

Friday mystery object #495 answer

Last week I gave you this cute little skull to identify:

This is an object I selected when I was recovering from Covid, so I picked it thinking that I knew what it said on the label and so it would be an easy one to write up an answer for. Of course, the Universe being the way it is, I came to write this answer and realised that I actually took note of the wrong label.

My brain is clearly still not fully recovered from being ill, so now comes the complicated bit where I have to work out what it is, with no more information than I gave you, since I’m writing this answer at home and I don’t have access to either the specimen or our database.

Fortunately a lot of that work has already been done by the wonderful regular visitors to Zygoma (thanks folks!)

This is one of the diminutive Artiodactyls. It has neither horns nor antlers (although the specimen is female, so those might not be present even if the males of the species had them). It lacks scars from scent glands, so it’s not a Dik-dik or other tiny antelope. However, it does have small but prominent canines, which offer a clue. As Chris Jarvis suggested, this is the skull of a Mouse-deer, in the family Tragulidae.

There are three possible Genera in the family, but a quick check against specimens from the Genus Hyemoschus show some clear differences – both in general proportions of rostrum (snouty bit), the number of foramina in the front part of the mandible (Hyemoschus normally have two, but our mystery specimen has just one).

There are also differences in comparison with specimens in the Genus Moschiola – which seem to more usually have two foramina in the maxilla and a somwhat open suture at the junction between the bones of the maxilla, frontal and nasal bones.

That leaves the Genus Tragulus, which the mystery skull fits with very well.

It all gets a bit more complicated from there. In terms of size, I think we can rule out the Greater Mouse-deer since the mystery skull is about 2cm shorter that an example of the Greater Mouse-deer that I featured on the blog about 12 years ago (where doe the time go?):

This size difference is not a perfect characteristic to use, since the skull length can overlap between the species, but the mystery specimen has all the indicators of being a mature adult and it would still be at the absolute smallest end of the spectrum for the Greater Mouse-deer.

Distinguishing between the other possible species is more problematic, since there can be quite a lot of regional variation within the remaining species. From looking at examples of skulls online I’m leaning towards the Lesser Mouse-deer rather than the Java, Philippine, Vietnam or Williamson’s Mouse-deer, but that’s based on the structre of the zygomatric arch and general proportions rather than any clearly distinctive features.

In this instance I can at least check my hunch tomorrow on our museum database, to see if my hunch plays out – I’ll update this answer with the result as soon as I have a chance!

[Update: I’ve had a chance to check and my hunch was off – it’s listed as Java Mouse-deer Tragulus javanicus (Osbeck, 1765), so it goes to show that you do need those clearly distinctive features to get a good identification! This is why it’s better to rule out what it can’t be based on the data available and be happy with having a few possibile options, rather than making a misidentiifcation]

Thanks to everyone who had a stab at the identification – I hope you enjoyed the challenge!

Friday mystery object #493 answer

Last week I gave you this skull to try your hand at identifying:

Adam Yates was straight in with the answer, but there were a few other suggestions that were close, but not quite on the nose.

One suggestion was Tursiops, which are the bottlenose dolphins. The length of the skull is about right, but the Common Bottlenose Dolphin has a relatively longer and narrower rostrum, as you can see by comparing the with the image below:

Skull of a Common Bottlenose Dolphin

The shape of the mystery skull is perhaps a better match for Risso’s Dolphin, except the rostrum is a bit longer and the premaxilla is narrower than the maxilla in the mystery object when viewed from above, but in the Risso’s Dolphin the premaxilla is a good bit wider. Also, the mystery specimen has way too many teeth.

Another suggestion was Melon-headed Whale, which is a species that is very similar to the mystery specimen, except it has much deeper antorbital notches – those bits on the sides of the skull that stick out like the Millenium Falcon’s cockpit.

The mystery skull is in fact from a White-beaked Dolphin, Lagenorhynchus albirostris (Gray, 1846). This is a species that lives in cold North Atlantic waters, feeding on Cod and related fish. Well done to everyone who managed to work it out!

I’ve provided a few links through the blog to some online resources that might be useful for comparing images or descriptions of cetacean skulls. Here are a few more that might come in useful:
Seawatch Foundation factsheets
Museums Victoria collections database
National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan – Marine Mammal Infiormation Database