Pop quiz, hotshot:

[barnabas_truman]

Identify this skull.

Comments

[glaukopis.livejournal.com]

My 10th English teacher.

[glaukopis.livejournal.com]

also grade. 10th grade.

[ribbin.livejournal.com]

What skull?

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

Yep, photo is missing.

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

It be the skull of Mr. Truman the Math Teacher after Iron Chef Hazel used it to make head cheese. No man living knows what Mr. Truman did...

(The image didn't load for me)

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

Off to Berkeley Paleo.

And I don't think it's a carnivore. A grazer with good defenses?
(I'm not sure though--are the back teeth for tearing meat, or cutting through vegetation fibers?)

[vollmeridian.livejournal.com]

is it harold?

[rose42dance.livejournal.com]

Oh, I thought we were supposed to guess without a photo! I WAS going to say a hamster, in particular the one from the Hamster Dance song.

Hm - it almost looks like the top is from a bird or dinosaur, but the bottom looks like that of a ground-digger, such as a wild boar or anteater kind of thing.

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

It's a tetrapod! What do I win?

OK, seriously. Or as much as we can be.

Let's start with: This *is* an extinct mammal, correct?

[loupyone.livejournal.com]

I'd go with some kind of boar. I'm not certain whether is is prehistoric or contemporary.

"Evidence" - Large nasal cavity, lower curved tusks, several large upper tusks. I believe these are all indicative of boar skulls.

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

And the set of the eye sockets up top.

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

Annnnd---I'm wrong.

Just peeked. Not boar.

[loupyone.livejournal.com]

I'd like to point out that hippos and pigs are closely related. I think I did pretty well guess boar.

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

The tusk placement and general skull shape are strikingly similar. If I hadn't known I probably would've guessed some sort of extinct megaboar.

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

Hippopotamus. It looks fairly fresh, so probably of the extant species, amphibius.

[suneclipse.livejournal.com]

Hippopotamus.

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

Hippopotamus indeed. The zoölogists win!

Also, hippos are evil.

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

Hippos aren't evil. They are animals. Very large animals with touchy dispositions and the ability to make their displeasure known. Give them the respect--and space--their size and dentition deserve, and you will have no problem with hippos.

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

Very large animals should be nice, and possibly rideable. They should not be in the habit of biting people to death, or of using their colons and tails as fecal gatling guns.

[whalejudge.livejournal.com]

Now that's evil. Other creatures exist solely for our benefit? You embrace the extinction of all very large species that aren't "nice"? What a horrible point of view.

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

Just because they're evil doesn't mean I think they should go extinct. It just means I don't like them.

[(Anonymous)]

Hippo skull. Teragram and Nala

[figsauce.livejournal.com]

No fair. The last time i checked there was no skull and I thought you were just being especially Discordian.

[barnabas-truman.livejournal.com]

Yeah; geocities isn't turning out to be a particularly reliable graphics host. Any suggestions?

[figsauce.livejournal.com]

Really? I'll have to ask Drave about that. For free, and for an audience that's relatively small, there's always Imageshack. They've always worked for as long as I've needed them to work. Right now all my images are hosted on Blogger or Vox, and I don't know if you can hotlink those outside of their respective sites.

[barelyproper.livejournal.com]

hippo.

[elissali.livejournal.com]

I was going to guess hippo, actually, because of the weird flat teeth in front. but then the tusks confused me and I started thinking mammoth or something. Should have gone with my first instinct!

[nick-101.livejournal.com]

Oh, so that's what it is. Hippos are awesome.