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 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 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!
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
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
It’s been a while since I gave you something partial to identify, so here’s something to be going on with:
As usual you can put your suggestions, comments and questions below and I’ll do my best to respond. Good luck (I have a feeling you might need it)!
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
Apologies for the slightly late posting today – it was out Xmas Party last night and an early start was simply beyond me. Another skull, but a bit trickier than last week:
I will try to answer questions and respond to your suggestions during the day, so put them below. Good luck!
On Friday I gave you this very easy, but hopefully interesting object:
Unsurprisingly most of you managed to identify this as being the skull of a juvenile or more accurately neonate (new born) Continue reading
This week I probably won’t be able to respond to comments on the mystery object as I’m in Liverpool at a conference about Dinosaurs (yay!), but I have a feeling you’ll get this without any help from me, as it’s pretty distinctive:
Good luck!
