Friday mystery object #100

It’s the one hundredth mystery object and I’ve decided to give you a challenge that I had to deal with at work this week.

I found a box of mandibles with no data, I identified them and checked them against their respective specimen types in the Horniman collections (that I’ve worked hard to organise for such a purpose).

The whole process took me half a morning and 5 of the 6 specimens were successfully reunited with the skulls they were separated from over 70 years ago – a satisfying outcome for a curator (our fun is cheap).

Now it’s your turn to identify the mystery mandibles (click image for bigger version):

From top to bottom: A, B, C, D, E, F

Put your suggestions and questions in the (newly organised) comments section below and I’ll do my best to respond.

Best of luck!

13 thoughts on “Friday mystery object #100

  1. Not got long to think about this, so some quick guesses…

    1. Young hyena?
    2. Wolverine?
    3. No idea. Seems so dstinctive it should be obvious, but not coming to mind…
    4. Fox
    5. Dog
    6. Leopard

  2. A and B look much the same to me, and much like the animal I heard mentioned in the staff room the other day, so I shall refrain from guessing.
    C is troublesome…the incisors are large, and the canine relatively small, so I’m going for something onmivorous (and possibly old by the bluntness of the teeth?), but that doesn’t narrow it down much. I’m tempted to suggest it’s another canid, because I can’t think what else fits. But I suspect I’m wrong.

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