SKULL!!

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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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