Snake?

January 3, 2007 1:44 PM

Can you identify this little skull my daughter and I found by the side of the road?

Dorsal/Ventral/Lateral view.

It's missing the mandible. It's about 10 cm / 4 inches long. I'm thinking snake but if so it would be no species found naturally here (Vancouver)--more like someone's huge pet python. Comparative anatomists please help!

posted by Turtles all the way down to Science & Nature (24 answers total)

Looks more like a pelvis than a skull. Those ribbed bits running along the center are akin to a human coccyx.
posted by boo_radley at 2:00 PM on January 3, 2007

I found a very similar item and my guess has always been that its a bird's pelvis. The pelvic bone of this bird skeleton resembles your picture.
posted by Binliner at 2:10 PM on January 3, 2007

Response by poster: boo_radley: That's what I thought when I saw it on the ground, for the very reason you cite--that the ribbed bits aren't found on the skulls I'm familiar with. But closer inspection shows that it has what look very much like eye sockets, nasal bones, and a shallow posterolateral "hook" on each side that looks like a place a mandible would articulate.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:11 PM on January 3, 2007

Response by poster: Hey Binliner, that does look very similar! You mean I picked up some old dirty chicken bone to take home? And here I was thinking I'd later run into some sad looking loser/ vexed stripper who'd lost their treasured albino python...
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:14 PM on January 3, 2007

LOL Yes, that seems to be the case. More likely a seagull or crow if it was found on the road. Scavenging has it's price.

Actually, the bone looks very nice once it is completely bleached.
posted by Binliner at 2:18 PM on January 3, 2007

That's no skull.
posted by wsg at 2:20 PM on January 3, 2007

I knew it was some kind bird pelvis right off because most of my family fights over who gets to eat the turkey's butt at Thanksgiving. The picture looks just like the aftermath.

Didn't really add anything..I just needed that to be known
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:23 PM on January 3, 2007

#Turtles all the way down: You mean I picked up some old dirty chicken bone

Here are some good pictures of a chicken skeleton. The pelvis is similar but is not a very good match so my guess is that you do not have a lowly chicken.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 2:23 PM on January 3, 2007

Response by poster: Okay, I'm convinced it's a pelvis and not from a chicken. At this point I'm betting on gull; ?seems a little big to be a crow, even a big one. (But there's lots of both in the neighborhood.)
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:29 PM on January 3, 2007

Here's one flavour of gull pelvis.
posted by CKmtl at 2:31 PM on January 3, 2007

I asked my colleague across the hall and it is the sacrum of a large duck or a small goose. With no scale, can't be more specific than that. Best fit is merganser, 2nd best domestic goose.

On preview: definitely not a gull, sorry.
posted by Rumple at 2:33 PM on January 3, 2007

Response by poster: Okay, the plot thickens! Agreed not a gull. Rumple: it's 9/5 cm long and 6 cm at its widest point.

So, we're right next to Stanley park, which means lots of ducks and geese of all descriptions. Canada geese are plentiful but big. Domestic goose...perhaps the remains of a Chinese meal?
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:42 PM on January 3, 2007

Response by poster: That should have been 9.5 cm long.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:51 PM on January 3, 2007

Best answer: OK, based on both size and morphology the best fit is Anas platyrhynchos, the common mallard. Contextually, not exactly rare in Stanley Park. That's a 90% confident bone I.D. from someone who does it for a living.
posted by Rumple at 2:51 PM on January 3, 2007

she also does it for beer, which I will cover.
posted by Rumple at 2:53 PM on January 3, 2007

Response by poster: Stellar! Thanks all. (And please try to forget the fact that I have an M.D. and should know the difference between a skull and a sacrum. But I still think it's the spitting image of a snake head if you don't look to closely.)
posted by Turtles all the way down at 2:56 PM on January 3, 2007

Brontosauruses had brains at both ends, and birds are descended from dinosaurs, so of course their hips and skulls are identical. It's Science!
posted by flabdablet at 4:16 PM on January 3, 2007

No they didn't and no it's not.
posted by Science! at 4:28 PM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sorry, flabdablet: you can't argue with Science!
posted by Turtles all the way down at 5:08 PM on January 3, 2007 [1 favorite]

Turtles all the way down isn't Science!
posted by flabdablet at 5:23 PM on January 3, 2007

Reminds me a helluva lot of this thing I found back in June 2005. I think at the time somebody speculated it was a bat piece.
posted by etoile at 5:57 PM on January 3, 2007

My son and I found a very similar bone a few months ago, and it was only through lots of random searching at the time that I found out it was a bird pelvis. Glad to see I wasn't crazy!
posted by shinynewnick at 6:22 PM on January 3, 2007

etoile - you're right, that's also a bird sacrum you found (with a few extra bits still attached, like what looks to be part of a femur).
posted by Rumple at 6:44 PM on January 3, 2007

STICK WITH THE KID
posted by boo_radley at 8:53 AM on January 4, 2007