Seeing a skull is never dull

July 18, 2023 4:45 PM

What kind of animal is this skull from?

I noticed this skull in my local park. I think it was around 4 inches long, +/- 2 inches. I'm curious what kind of animal it is from.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y3-GcQDdrARBMxTauufoh9cI3a7yCwhi/view?usp=sharing

posted by Dansaman to Pets & Animals (6 answers total)

Best answer: Where are you located? That will narrow it down.

Pretty sure it's a raccoon or opossum, but I don't actually know. Here's a look at some common North American animal skulls.
posted by blnkfrnk at 5:00 PM on July 18, 2023

Do you have information on size? blnkfrnk's pdf has some good information on diagnostic features.
posted by iceberg273 at 5:04 PM on July 18, 2023

Response by poster: @blnkfrnk I'm in southern California, and we do have both raccoons and opossums in the neighborhood.
posted by Dansaman at 5:12 PM on July 18, 2023

(If you are trying to differentiate between an opossum and a raccoon, it would also be helpful to know if there is a crest on the top of the skull--opossum has one, raccoon doesn't.)
posted by iceberg273 at 5:14 PM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Page 55 of blnkfrnk's link has a good side-by-side view of a raccoon's skull vs an opossum's. The teeth in your image look just like the opossum's.
posted by whatnotever at 6:20 PM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Since you've got most of the teeth for the right upper jaw, you can consult a chart of mammal dental formulae. From that information, it's pretty clearly an opossum skull — nobody else has five incisors on each side, or a total of 26 teeth in the upper jaw.
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:59 PM on July 18, 2023 [5 favorites]