Animal skeleton ID?
September 2, 2011 10:36 AM Subscribe
What creature was this? Found it on the beach in Brooklin, Maine (near Penobscot Bay).
It looks mammalian to me, at least. If it's a sea mammal, I'm thinking otter/seal/walrus type (pinniped) but... I'm kind of leaning towards dog right now. Are those deck boards six inches wide or four?
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 10:57 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 10:57 AM on September 2, 2011
Can you flip that sucker over and take a picture of the underside? It might help to see the underside of the (what is that, a sacrum? it's pretty funny looking) back of it to see if there are any hip/leg joints.
posted by phunniemee at 11:02 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by phunniemee at 11:02 AM on September 2, 2011
Oh hey. Yeah, I think I was looking at it backwards. I'm leaning toward dog now too. :-)
posted by rusty at 11:10 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by rusty at 11:10 AM on September 2, 2011
I don't think it's a dog. The vertebrae don't look right; too robust and uniform, maybe?. I'm almost thinking something reptilian. (IANYAnatomist.)
posted by phunniemee at 11:27 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by phunniemee at 11:27 AM on September 2, 2011
Best answer: Looks a lot like this northern seal skeleton. The tailbone and most of the pelvis is missing.
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:37 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by bonobothegreat at 11:37 AM on September 2, 2011
Hmm...maybe I take that back. I found these excellent drawings of a dog skeleton. The hips still don't look right to me, though.
posted by phunniemee at 11:44 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by phunniemee at 11:44 AM on September 2, 2011
Best answer: Bonobothegreat is right, the tail and most of the pelvis are missing; we're looking at lumbar vertebrae and part of the ilium. It looks kind of like the ilium/sacrum have broken off, and there might be rough and weatherworn sections. jamjames, could we get a detail shot of the "pelvic" part? And could you tell us how long the whole thing is, and how wide the widest vertebra is? I'm still leaning towards dog, rather than seal, but I'm not entirely certain.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 12:19 PM on September 2, 2011
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 12:19 PM on September 2, 2011
Response by poster: I appreciate everyone's sleuthing on this. Unfortunately the remains remain in Maine, and I'm back home in Texas, so those two photos are all I can provide.
phunniemee: Your links to the drawings aren't working for me; any chance you can re-post them?
Made of Start Stuff: Based on my recollection, I'd estimate the skeleton's length to be 14 inches or so, and maybe 4-5 inches across the widest vertebra.
Thanks again, everyone!
posted by jamjames at 9:44 PM on September 2, 2011
phunniemee: Your links to the drawings aren't working for me; any chance you can re-post them?
Made of Start Stuff: Based on my recollection, I'd estimate the skeleton's length to be 14 inches or so, and maybe 4-5 inches across the widest vertebra.
Thanks again, everyone!
posted by jamjames at 9:44 PM on September 2, 2011
I answered this privately a month ago, but this is probably a deer spine with sacrum still attached. The vertebrae are from a small(ish), rigid-backed creature. The clue is the sacrum's shape, the number of lumbar vertebrae and the angles/length of the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. I mean, I'm basically gestalting and have to reason back to why I 'know', but that should be it.
To understand what I mean about the rigid vertebral column and why this can't be a dog skeleton (which would have shorter, more tightly angled processes to allow lumbar spinal flexion for running, click on the movie link here that compares herbivore and cursorial (running/chasing) carnivore gaits.
Dogs and cats run with their spines. (Sea mammals, complete or otherwise, swim with their spines as well, ruling out seals, whales and sea lions.) They have multi-purpose forelimbs, and their spines pick up the slack. Ungulates and equids trade ease of acquiring food for a system that requires serious structural support (multi-chamber stomachs and/or complex hindguts). Their limbs are entirely built for locomotion, and their spines for supporting the mass of their bodies and the great leverage needed to power their proximal limbs. Check the movie at the top of this page for a comparison, and the site details the finicky structural stuff for those interested.
It could be a sheep or goat. But mostly, when I see gracile herbivore bones in the wild, I look for reasons that it couldn't be a deer, because it usually is a deer.
posted by Uniformitarianism Now! at 9:21 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
To understand what I mean about the rigid vertebral column and why this can't be a dog skeleton (which would have shorter, more tightly angled processes to allow lumbar spinal flexion for running, click on the movie link here that compares herbivore and cursorial (running/chasing) carnivore gaits.
Dogs and cats run with their spines. (Sea mammals, complete or otherwise, swim with their spines as well, ruling out seals, whales and sea lions.) They have multi-purpose forelimbs, and their spines pick up the slack. Ungulates and equids trade ease of acquiring food for a system that requires serious structural support (multi-chamber stomachs and/or complex hindguts). Their limbs are entirely built for locomotion, and their spines for supporting the mass of their bodies and the great leverage needed to power their proximal limbs. Check the movie at the top of this page for a comparison, and the site details the finicky structural stuff for those interested.
It could be a sheep or goat. But mostly, when I see gracile herbivore bones in the wild, I look for reasons that it couldn't be a deer, because it usually is a deer.
posted by Uniformitarianism Now! at 9:21 PM on October 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by rusty at 10:45 AM on September 2, 2011