It’s puzzle time again! For a change, and to make this installment easier but fun and different, I’ll use a movie, of a 3D skeleton segmented from 480 CT slices, rather than just 1 CT slice. Let ‘er rip, folks!
Difficulty: not to scale, and dentition/jaws obscured.
Stomach-Churning Rating: 1/10; c’mon, it’s a CT scan!
Tyrannosaurus rex..?
anteater?
A canid of some description? I’ve really got to get me a CT scanner.
I think this scan must tell a lot to those who can interpret it, but perhaps I don’t have the vison for it?
That’s my cryptic guess.
Judging from the partially obscured skull I’d say it was a big rodent. Beaver?
a tree kangeroo?
European otter?
some kind of mustelid, but not a wolverine or a badger. European Otter or Amercan Mink?
a fossa
Well, I think this is a member of the Carnivora, maybe a musteliid or procyoniid…
Definitely feels like a mustelid of some kind because of the long, narrow ribcage… I’m going to guess a type of marten. Not sure what the locality is so I don’t want to immediately line up a species, but I’m feeling good with the genus Martes. The cranium just doesn’t seem long and narrow enough for Mustela, and the frame seems too gracile for Lutra/Lontra and WAY too slender for Taxidea/Meles.
I’m also going for something in the mustelid family. It’s difficult to see the phalanges which would be useful, but the humerus looks sort of curvy. My knowlege of anatomy and google images points me towards an otter species? I prob should go outside, visiting budapest but today it’s raining.
The more I look at this, the more I think my original guess is wrong, I’ve got another, better informed guess if I’m allowed. 🙂
Go ahead! 🙂
Thanks 😀
The length of tail had been bothering me as well as the degree of postorbital constriction. So taking those factors and a few others into account my new guess is ringtail cat, or genus Bassariscus.
Answer coming tomorrow sometime… last chance for The Greatest Glory in the Universe (or perpetual shame and regret)!
Thanks for playing, folks– the answer is… (and plenty of you got it, or nearly so) Lutra lutra, the European otter!
http://www.theanimalfiles.com/mammals/carnivores/otter_european.html
It died in a UK wildlife reserve area and was sent to us for our research, so it is currently resting inside Freezersaurus until we’re ready to tackle it.
Olle Håstad got it right first (followed 44min later by RH! And Paolo and others came close), so three cheers for Olle (and at least 1 cheer for RH), and thanks for all the fun comments and guesses!