Sunday 10 April 2011

Bones In The Garden

We've spent a lot of time over the last few weekends working on the garden; clearing ground, planting and potting up lots of plants, sowing seeds and assembling a huge compost bin. I've spent a lot of time therefore staring at the soil in the garden. I've come across numerous bugs, grubs and caterpillars which I've failed miserably to either identify or photograph but I've only come across one skull!

I'm assuming it's from a mouse or some other small mammal that has been brutally tortured and killed by one of the many local cats -- my bet is on the vicious ginger tom cat that lives next door.

Now I have a lot of books that help with identifying things but funnily enough I don't have one that specializes in mammal skulls. Does anyone know exactly what the skull is from? If it helps it is exactly 2cm along the top of the skull and the teeth are 3mm long. If specific angles are required for identification let me know and I'll post some more photos.
26 April 2011 at 11:18 , Scriptor Senex said...

The flat top surface and angle of the bone that sticks out suggest a rat.

26 April 2011 at 11:22 , Mark said...

Interesting. I'd assumed a rat's skull would be bigger than that, but given the size of the teeth I did wonder.

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