r/bonecollecting • u/One_Conflict2141 • 1d ago
Bone I.D. - Europe Skull identification help
Hi :) I work in a wildlife education centre in southern England and am going through our bone collection.
My colleague and I looked at the skulls and labelled what we could. Can anyone identify the numbered ones? Or correct any of the other IDs? I have included a close up of 8 (which looks like it is missing part of the front) and the underside of 3.
I suspect most will have been collected locally, but can't guarantee it. There were some other labels and bones in the box, including one label that said wild boar. Please let me know if any more photos or detail would be useful. I will be grateful for any help!
2
u/DeadCentreScotland 23h ago
1,2,4,5,7,8, and 9 are all roe deer of varying sex and age. 3 looks like a red deer cap. 6 is a sheep or goat. 10 is a juvenile badger. The two next to the red deer label are fallow deer.
1
u/One_Conflict2141 22h ago
Wow, thank you! 😁 I should be able to get better pictures of 3 and 6 on Wednesday if that would help to confirm. The top of 3 looks like the antlers were cut off.
1
u/DeadCentreScotland 10h ago
Looking again and comparing with my examples I believe number 3 is a large fallow buck, the sutures and foramen look a little off for a red stag. It would be good to get side on angles of number 6 to try and decipher if it had a lacrimal pit or a gap between its nasal bones. With how wide the nose is I’m leaning towards young sheep.
1
1
u/Shining-Echoes 1d ago
8 is so cool! I haven’t seen any skull like it :0
not sure what it is but it’s really cool
1
u/Shining-Echoes 1d ago
after a reverse image search, I believe it is some sort of deer (young male possibly?), and has the start of small antlers (the ones that would be fuzzy when alive)
1
u/One_Conflict2141 1d ago
Thank you 😊 we did consider that they might be barely visible given how far up the others look like they come out. That makes sense.
1
2
u/One_Conflict2141 1d ago
I just realised that 2 is a roe deer, I numbered it accidentally.