SKULL!!

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Here's the skull from the animal skeleton I found in the woods by my house yesterday ....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Paronomasiac/Skull_06.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Paronomasiac/get-attachment.jpg

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 13:57 (seventeen years ago) link

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Paronomasiac/get-attachment-1.jpg

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 13:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Wow!

― g000blar (g00blar), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:06 (seventeen years ago) link

might be a bear

― Louis Jagger (Scourage), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I emailed the pictures to a friend of mine who works at the Natural History Museum.

He just replied, and said (very authoritatively) that it's definitely a Tibetan Yak. (I think he may have got his job under false pretences).

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:07 (seventeen years ago) link

No, it's definitely a Griffin.

― Rumps (Rumps), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:12 (seventeen years ago) link

is it dead?

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link

It's not well.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Wow! Cool! Those teeth are amazing!

I'm with the idea of a griffin, or maybe some kind of miniature dragon. The wings decompose so it may have looked like a dog when you found the remains.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Was that ruler part of the skele(ok, I really need to get back to work, don't I?)

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I hope to god those are centimeters!

― austin!@#$ (austin), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Furlongs.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:39 (seventeen years ago) link

It's one of those Mexican things with wings that eat goats - I know the name I just can't spell it.

― Ned T.Rifle (Ned T.Rifle), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

From Wikipedia (On the Jersy Devil):

Nelson Evans and his wife, of Gloucester, found the Devil outside their window at 2:30 AM .

Mr. Evans gave the following account: "It was about three feet and a half high, with a head like a collie dog and a face like a horse. It had a long neck, wings about two feet long, and its back legs were like those of a crane, and it had horse's hooves. It walked on its back legs and held up two short front legs with paws on them. It didn't use the front legs at all while we were watching. My wife and I were scared, I tell you, but I managed to open the window and say, 'Shoo!' and it turned around, barked at me, and flew away".

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:51 (seventeen years ago) link

*switch on 'bones' mode*

this animal fell off his bike when he was 14 yrs old. snorted a bunch of coke a week later which made him feel like a million dollars and put on a pair of skeelers. his mum was a real estate agent - you can tell from his bones as he has tennis legs.

― nathalie (stevienixed), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Paronomasiac/Skull_05.jpg

It does look a little bit goaty, I suppose.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The whole skeleton was curled up as though asleep, the bones not even looking as though they had been disturbed by predators.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Although the head is missing now, obv. I might take it back.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Goats don't have teeth like that.

Besides, if it was goaty, it would be very hard to distinguish from a sheep. So it would also look sheepish.

It's one of those Mexican things with wings that eat goats

El Chupacabra?

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link

evil mutant deer obv

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link

giant monkey? i have a monkey skull that my aunt gave me when i was in 5th grade:

http://myspace-300.vo.llnwd.net/00021/00/35/21045300_m.jpg

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:08 (seventeen years ago) link

I've got a human phalange somewhere.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm really thrown by those huge canines! The front teeth don't look too sharpish but those giant fangs suggest something definitely not plant-eating.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

bear skull?

http://www.evolutionnyc.com/ImgUpload/P_457277_961859.jpg

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I was looking a German Shepherd in the face yesterday, and the front teeth do remind me of dog teeth - they have that very pronounced step or rebate at the rear that the lower teeth rest against when the mouth is closed.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.skullsite.co.uk/Brbear/brbear_ven.jpg

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

the teeth are a bit different, perhaps a large dog?

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

xx-post

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Your aunt gave you a monkey skull??

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:19 (seventeen years ago) link

yes! it was during a family gathering, and she said i could have it if i wanted. it had been sitting on a shelf in my grandparents' basement.

she got it while in africa (she's a biochemist, and she's studied/traveled/lived all over the place) about ten years before she gave it to me.

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link

i wonder if it has magical powers

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link

the skull is very dog like, perhaps too wide or flat for german shepherd tho?

― Ste (fuzzy), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:26 (seventeen years ago) link

That's brilliant, LB.

We should start a club. ILXORs who own animal skulls. You and I shall be founding members.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:27 (seventeen years ago) link

10 years ago i would have been the president of your club.

― Ste (fuzzy), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link

What else did you have?

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

And why

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

my grandfather gave me this skull when i was a kid. it's very mysterious and has strange ceremonial markings on it and a small hole at the top.

http://static.flickr.com/116/314058144_954ca0798c.jpg?v=0

― scott seward (121212), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link

http://static.flickr.com/116/314058147_c4383a3c13.jpg?v=0

― scott seward (121212), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

http://static.flickr.com/111/314058149_20a7c4fabb.jpg?v=0

― scott seward (121212), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

http://static.flickr.com/115/314058151_b26e696354.jpg?v=0

― scott seward (121212), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

That looks like the start of a Stephen King story or something...

― masonic boom (kate), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link

my brother gave me a nice antique skull ashtray once, but it's not real.

http://static.flickr.com/105/314058156_31b403612b.jpg?v=0

― scott seward (121212), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

http://static.flickr.com/119/314058153_969e58099b.jpg?v=0

― scott seward (121212), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

That looks like the start of a Stephen King story or something...

Or that Sherlock Holmes one with the midgets in it.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:13 (seventeen years ago) link

That skull's pretty fuckin' cool, and yeh, if you recite the bible backwards while holding it then Cthulhu appears.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link

What should I do with Fang, then?

(a) Take him back to the woods where I found him, to reunite his head with the rest of him?

(b) Keep him, and bring him out every year as a Halloween decoration?

(d) Something else?

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link

headdress?

― Ste (fuzzy), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

White witch! White witch!

You could hollow out his head and make a candle holder out of it. It would be quite the conversation piece at parties.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I could wrap it in cling film and use it as a punch bowl.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:30 (seventeen years ago) link

I have a human skull (but it's still in my head - I won't be able to take pictures of it until after I'm done with it).

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Novelty cheese knife.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:35 (seventeen years ago) link

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/marthasminions/tinybones.jpg

tiny bones from tiny box in my office. I also have a HUGE whale(?) sacrum (?) that I found on the beach, too big to scan and I don't know where the camera is. Maybe I'll scan it anyway.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:50 (seventeen years ago) link

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e391/marthasminions/whalebone1.jpg

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link

As a kid growing up in Yosemite, I had loads of cool skulls that I found.

C.J., that's definitely not goat dentition. It looks like a dog's skull to me.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 4 December 2006 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link

The breadth between the canines is odd, though. My dog's not here right now, otherwise I'd scan his mouth (just kidding. I wouldn't do that).
Everyone with a dog at hand, examine his/her dentition NOW!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 4 December 2006 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I wonder if C.J. found the manidible too.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 4 December 2006 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

It's quite sad to think of a dog going into the woods, curling up and dying. Too sad actually. Poor pooch. I'd rather it was a dragon.

― Rumps (Rumps), Monday, 4 December 2006 17:46 (seventeen years ago) link

It looks badgery to me.

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 4 December 2006 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link

No, it was quite a bit bigger than a badger.

Badger's skull :

http://www.hainaultforest.co.uk/Badger%20skull.JPG

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Michael : I think the mandible is probably still there, along with the rest of the skellington. I might go and get it (except not now, because it is dark).

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes, I think dog is the way to go, here. I missed the profile jpg with the mountainous back teeth, way up there -- dog molars always look like mini-mountain ranges to me.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Housemate: What are you doing?

Me: I'm looking at Cody's teeth to see if they match up with the ones in a skull my internet friend found.

Housemate: I... see.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm just reading a website about animal skulls. It says badgers have a wrap-around jaw hinge which means the lower mandible cannot be removed from the rest of the skull.

So, not badger then.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:36 (seventeen years ago) link

It def looks quite dog like.

My dog is a German Wirehaired Pointer, who looks rather like yhis :

http://www.ourdogs.co.uk/BreederDirectory/images/gwhp-bareve.jpg

He's quite large - bigger than a Labrador, anyway - but this skull is larger than his head. (I just had a comedy five minutes where I tried to hold the skull next to my dog's head for comparison, and dog thought I had brought him a tasty bony treat so there was some enthusiastic slobbering and headbutting going on as I tried to wrestle it away from him again). (He was doing the slobbering and headbutting, not me, you understand).

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link

The skull's teeth are far more widely-spaced than my dog's, too.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:43 (seventeen years ago) link

That's what I think, too. My dog's teeth are pretty tight-packed in the front.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 4 December 2006 18:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Big cat? Where do you live?

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Oxfordshire, UK.

There have been quite a few sightings of animals which are purportedly big cats.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:02 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.scottishbigcats.co.uk/engnews318.htm

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link

If I am not mistaken there's some kind of institution of higher learning somewhere in your vicinity. The name escapes me, unfortunately, but perhaps you could enquire there as to the species of beast this skull belongs to. Also, quit teasing you dog with crania and give him a proper treat for his part, however small, in helping you unravel what must be one of the most fascinating mysteries in Oxfordshire animal history. I fear for your sanity, however, if it turns out this is the skull of an elusive English Chickenbear.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:31 (seventeen years ago) link

If it turns out to be the elusive Chickenbear, I shall die of happiness.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I dunno about the cat thing, here's a cougar skull and it seems fundamentally different:

http://www.headhuntertaxidermy.com/sell_skull/sell_skull_lion2b_side.JPG

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Then where would your dog be?

xpost

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Yes Laurel, I have my doubts about the cat thing. This skull definitely has a snout, and cats down have those.

(My dog would feast on my carcass, then either die of a broken heart that I had left him, or saunter casually around to a neighbour's house and steal their dinner too. I suspect the latter).

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:43 (seventeen years ago) link

cats down? I mean cats don't.

Stupid fingers.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Cats down!? You mean like an exotic duvet filler?

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:52 (seventeen years ago) link

That wouldn't work. All that wriggling about and miaowing all night long!

The cats wouldn't get a wink of sleep.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 19:59 (seventeen years ago) link

If it's round Oxfordshire, it could be the fabled monkeydog - a half-monkey half-dog creature that roamed the fields around Aston Tirrold when I was young, creating fear in all those who would go out after dark and cause mischief. No-one, of course, ever saw it, but all the kdis knew it was there, and was sure that if it set it's glowing red eyes upon you, you'd be mincemeat before you could say urban legend.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Tim Henman lives in Aston Tirrold.

Say. no. more.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I think badger isn't too far off - the one you linked to first wasn't a European/Eurasian badger, I believe. They can get bigger than you'd expect, too (more than a meter in length) :

http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/uploads/images/159/l_1badger_skull.JPG

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:35 (seventeen years ago) link

vs.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/Paronomasiac/Skull_05.jpg

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I have a badger's sett (of three generations, all living together) in my garden, Stan - I frequently see them lumbering about at night, scooping great divots of turf out of my lawns and eating their way around my vegetable garden. I once found a dead grandad-badger lying near the sett (we had to get the RSPCA to come and remove him, as they are a protected species and you aren't allowed to touch them), and he was really very big indeed.

This skeleton was larger than that though. More than Great Dane size, I guess.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Definitely had longer legs than a badger, too.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I was gonna say, merkin badgers be differing.

― Madchen (Madchen), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Can dogs and badgers, er, if they like each other very much, well, could they have, you know?

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link

Make a bog? or a dadger?

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

(Dodger Dogger Baddog Bodger Bagine Candger ?)

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

That sounds like the Shipping Forecast.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:44 (seventeen years ago) link

once boiled the skin and flesh off a skull, for a science project

that one looks like a dog

also: friend came back from Benin, where he was studying voodoo (anthropologically), brought with him chicken bones dipped in blood. given as gifts

― grbchv! (gbx), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:47 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.takingthelead.co.uk/3/Anatomy/dog_skulls.htm

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, it's a shame it's all about ipods and X-boxes these days. I yearn for the simpler times when kids were happy to be given monkey skulls and blood-dipped chicken bones.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Heeeey, chihuahuas look ugly and evil even BENEATH the skin!

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link

That chihuahua looks quite smiley.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:54 (seventeen years ago) link

I reckon either a collie or a great dane, based on those skulls.

― Johnney B has zeros off the line (stigoftdumpilx), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe German Shepherd, too.

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I know a couple of humans who have a pug skull :-/

― StanM (StanM), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:03 (seventeen years ago) link

http://pug-pictures.com/PoseyLou.jpg

― C J (C J), Monday, 4 December 2006 21:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe it's from a big broad-headed dog, like a newfie or a rottie. Or a bulldog! Poor baby dog.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:30 (seventeen years ago) link

No—not squash-faced enough for a bulldog. Hey—what about a boar? Do their tusks look like dog canines?

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:32 (seventeen years ago) link

I must vote Chickenbear as well.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:33 (seventeen years ago) link

http://static.flickr.com/36/79217274_45cb474f9d_m.jpg

boar skull

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link

No, they have tusks that stick out at an angle on the top jaw as well as the bottom. Shoot.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:37 (seventeen years ago) link

http://paleodirect.com/images/textimages/boarskullanteriorlm41-005.jpg

as you can see here.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I still wonder if those teeth are too spread-out to be your average dog's.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:39 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.amonline.net.au/mammals/images/gallery/400/dog_skull_10.jpg

ventral view of wolf skull. Some differences there.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 00:45 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it's yr duty to make a silly artskool Jan Svankmajer fakey sto motion flick with your covetable and curious find.

― Abbott (Abbott), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:00 (seventeen years ago) link

hmm, i'm thinking of uk location and the fact you found it in the woods, it could be a fox skull

― Ste (fuzzy), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Fox is probably about the right size, but the images of fox skulls I see on google dont have the forward thrusting teeth. I think it's a smallish bulldog type pup. Maybe a juvenile staffie pup or something.

― austin!@#$ (austin), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 01:58 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk/images/collections/mammals/carnivora/redfoxskull.jpg

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 03:32 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk/images/collections/mammals/carnivora/redfoxskull.jpg

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 03:33 (seventeen years ago) link

http://courses.washington.edu/vertebra/452/photos/mammals/fox_skull_ventral.jpg

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 03:35 (seventeen years ago) link

http://members.aol.com/thefightingfury/whoclix/skrull.gif

SKRULL!!

― austin!@#$ (austin), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 04:45 (seventeen years ago) link

i think we have a match!

― latebloomer (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 05:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess those bulbous things (the auditory bullae—bony capsules enclosing the middle and inner ear) were broken off in CJ's specimen.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 14:52 (seventeen years ago) link

the metallic purple suit probably had already melted away as well.

― latebloomer! (clonefeed), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

No, no it hadn't. That was still there.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I hope you are wearing it. It bestows super-powers, as long as you don't go into the woods.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:34 (seventeen years ago) link

The woods are rotten with kryptonite.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I am wearing it right now. Plus the dog skull is upon my head, at a jaunty angle, tied on with pink ribbon. Fear me, I am Dog Woman.

It's a German Shepherd dog, by the way. I took it to ANNE EXPERT who confirmed it for me.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Cause of death?

― Rumps (Rumps), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't know.

ANNE EXPERT's first comment was that someone probably took the dog out to the woods and shot it, but there's no bullet wound visible on the skull. I suppose it's possible that it ingested some poison of some sort. It certainly looked as though it had died in its sleep, all curled up peacefully :(

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

:( ?

Would "looks like it died violently" have been a :) ?

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 18:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe it was a bad dog.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 23:02 (seventeen years ago) link

The way he's showing his teeth and all.

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 5 December 2006 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link

My inappropriate use of emotes makes me seem like a horrible person.

I think the whole episode is very sad. From the condition of the teeth, it's been estimated that the dog was quite young - maybe only about two years old. I live in a fairly remote rural area, in a very small and friendly village where everybody knows everybody else, and it's not the sort of place where someone could lose a dog without people knowing that it had gone missing. Even if a person not-from-round-these-parts had lost their dog while out walking in the moor, putting up a "Lost Dog" poster or asking around would have had loads of the neighbours out helping to search. I'm puzzled by what could have happened to the poor animal, and how seemingly nobody cared that it had gone missing.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 09:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Don't worry about the emoticons.

Aren't those small front teeth stumps old and worn off?

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 10:22 (seventeen years ago) link

http://image.shopzilla.com/resize?sq=160&uid=412181587&mid=19458

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 12:24 (seventeen years ago) link

This is something to be investigated I feel.... get forensics in.

I like a good real life mystery.

― Rumps (Rumps), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

The teeth looked relatively clean.
Was he close enough to a road that he might have gone there after being hit?

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 6 December 2006 19:38 (seventeen years ago) link

If he/she'd been hit seriously enough to cause death, you'd expect skeletal damage.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 7 December 2006 09:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Nowhere near a road, really (and no obvious signs of skeletal damage from having been hit). He was found near the middle of a small wood which is on private land and with no public right-of-way, on the outskirts of a small village (only about 50 houses in total) surrounded by moorland. The village is not on a thoroughfare to anywhere else, just a sort of dead end. Literally so, in the dog's case.

The next nearest village is a few miles away, so it's possible that he escaped from his own garden and ended up lost in our wood, but it's still strange that nobody was asking around if a dog had been found. I can't think of any poison which he may have found - people round here sometimes put down poisoned rat or mole pellets, but it's rare. It's agricultural land mainly, so maybe it was some kind of paraquat weedkiller used by a farmer. Or he could have eaten and animal which had previously been poisoned.

Other than that, there's pheasant shooting in that wood during November and December so he might have been peppered with shot accidentally, but I would have thought that he'd have made a commotion and the hunt/point/retrieve dogs on the shoot would have found him.

The wood is owned by the family of John Buchan who wrote the 39 Steps. Maybe they could turn this into a mystery novel!

― C J (C J), Thursday, 7 December 2006 09:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Front teeth aren't supposed to be that far apart, are they? Does this mean it's either not full grown yet, or very old (worn off) or that it had some kind of calcium deficiency?

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 7 December 2006 10:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I think they look like typical German Shepherd teeth - as I said, I was looking one in the face last weekend. Next time I meet one I'll try to get photos.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 7 December 2006 10:09 (seventeen years ago) link

They don't look worn off, Stan. It's perhaps not too clear in the photos, but looking at the skull itself, the teeth seem remarkably clean and unworn. It might have been a very young dog, but it was still big for a German Shepherd, given the size of the skeleton - so definitely fully grown, and not a puppy.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 7 December 2006 10:14 (seventeen years ago) link

The front teeth between the huge canines are very short like that. My dog (the German pointer) has very similar teeth, although they are more closely spaced.

My only explanation for this is that the skull belongs to Goofy.

― C J (C J), Thursday, 7 December 2006 10:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, I guess I've been looking at the smaller types on that skull page. Next time I see a large canine, I'll have a closer l.. er... I'll ask its owner.

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 7 December 2006 10:26 (seventeen years ago) link

i would have guessed a very tooth-y sleestak... poor dog!

― Mike McG (yetimike), Thursday, 7 December 2006 10:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I know when cats are very ill they go off to a private place to die - do dogs do the same? Even a 2-year-old could die of natural causes, and if it's one with the run of the neighbourhood then that makes sense I think.

― Maaarghk C (Maaarghk C), Thursday, 7 December 2006 11:32 (seventeen years ago) link

So, what was it? Did any experts report back?

― StanM (StanM), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 13:04 (seventeen years ago) link

Cause of death remains a mystery.

I was talking to the gamekeeper who looks after that area of land the other day and he said it was strange that he'd not noticed the skeleton there before, since he spends a lot of time in those woods. Odd.

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link

CJ any chance you could email me the pic? The address here works. It's just that the only pic that isn't displaying on my pooter is, somewhat annoyingly, the one that yr thread is all about!

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Okie dokie .... I'll send it to you now :)

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 13:41 (seventeen years ago) link

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