First of all, congrats to John, Ann, and the Duxbury Ramblers, who guessed #3. You got it right. Here is the fragment next to two more complete skulls.
Now you can see that it is a deer. I am sorry to say that this was a fawn that did not make it through the winter. It was probably born late in the season. There's no way to know if it was killed, or just died and was then eaten.
How can I tell? Well, the two real giveaway features for me were that the top of the skull did not narrow significantly in front of the eyes, and the big one was the holes (foramen) just above the eye sockets. I've circled one on each of the skulls in the picture below. The color is just an indication of how much the bone has bleached, and has nothing to do with identification.
Here is the book I use to help me identify skulls. I tried to add it to my Amazon Recommendations at the bottom of the page, but it's not letting me edit it for some reason. Hope I can get that figured out soon. I had a lot of fun today! Since we are supposed to have several rainy days soon, I already know that I'll have good things to show you, despite the weather.
My life is getting really busy again, and I'm behind on reading many of your blogs. I caught up with a couple of people today, and I'll try to get a few more tomorrow!
 | See A Bony Mystery |
6 comments:
It's so easy to get behind in the blog world. I am still behind from my three weeks in GA and I'm off today to a conference for a few days, then head to Miami on Sunday for a four day cruise!! Can't wait for that.
Now I can see where that piece fits. That was quite a challenge and much fun.
yeah I guessed right.
I know if I go just one day without reading all the posts it takes forever to catch up on things. This time of year it's going to just get harder to keep up with it all.
Darn! I was one off!!! Do I get second place?? Cool book--I love that kind of stuff.
Don't worry about trying to catch up at my place--I'm so behind too. The kids are both in sports and I'm running so much, my head is spinning. We aren't even eating dinner until 7:00 each night! Ugh.
I would have never guessed it was a deer. I don't see many bones where I go. I was at a new place today, and I saw a dead raccoon. I took pictures, but it's probably too gruesome to share for most people.
Carmen- I hope all is well with you. Have a great trip!
Jo- Oh, I'm glad you liked it!
Ann- I don't know how I was keeping up last spring. I can't seem to get 3/4 of the things done in a day that I should.
Lin- You can have second place for sure... at least you took a guess!
Ratty- you know me by now... I have a collection! Here's a secret... raccoon skulls are really easy to tell. Maybe I'll blog about it one day.
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