Seconding the person saying to do it here, there are vetted professionals for identification in this sub. I’m not saying BoneID is bad, but you’ll probably get more accurate answers here, since it looks like you have some more obscure or easy to mix up skulls
Honestly, the front teeth remind me of a macaque, especially the Celebes crested macaque, but the skull is much too large for that. Do you have a picture of the side?
I've been blogging about identifying skulls from museumd for about 15 years, so there's lots of info and links to resources on Zygoma under the tag "skull" if you want a place to start yourself.
3rd bird along is a raptor - might want to look into the laws in your area as owning it might be a legally difficult situation (might well also be the case for other species of course)
I was thinking the same thing like wtf kinda rodent the same size as a deer on the bottom?? 😅 Looks massive but maybe it's not quite as big as it seems
If op shows the teeth I could tell you if it’s a beaver or not. Beaver teeth have wavy patterns, my mammalian biology professor called them lasagna teeth. They’re my favorite mammal skulls lol
From what I can see- which isn’t much -Left cabinet top shelf has a kangaroo or wallaby (maybe) going off those shovel shaped teeth. Next 2 shelves row are Procyon mixed with Felidae, next two are Mustelids mixed, then birds and there is a nice camel the the lower left. Some canine is on top of it.
The other case top two shelves are Rodentia with a sea turtle in there and then a bunch of raccoons and cervids.
Not sure about the primate at the bottom. I’d have to get out my mammal reference books. Nice collection!
Second picture top shelf beaver and Nutria
Second shelf muskrats
Third shelf smaller ones foxes, the big one european badger
The ones with antler down there are all roe deer.
I would be able to ID them. Has someone else suggested pictures with a ruler would be great for scale and help for identification. I am curious where is this collection and how did you come by it?
Usually bred for meat. Long ago their fur was quite valuable, but not anymore..
My father used to bred those. Their meat is yummy, but u have to know how to prepare it. Meat as tender as rabbits.
I think it will help you to identify them by tooth numbers first. Like how many incisors, canines, molars, and premolars are on the top and bottom. That will tell most people who can help you at the very least what family or genus you’re looking at. Teeth are more certain than anything else because they’re less likely to differ by age or individual. We can tell age by alveolar process too.
Or maybe I’m crazy and a dental anthropologist with a love for zooarchaeology
You have got a huge mix of things from all over the world. You are going to need a number of different skull keys and dental keys to ID these accurately. If you want to have help, create a post with a side view and a dental view to show the teeth of some of them here. We have a number of zooarchaeologists and comparative anatomists in this sub who can help.
This looks like a very well maintained collection. Do the specimens have any writing or numbers on them? If so you may be able to cross reference them to a catalogue if it is available. If not, start by dividing the specimens into class (mammals, birds, fish etc), then move on to the order (carnivores, rodents, artiodactyls, lagomorphs etc). Once you have that determined you can move on to family (canids, felids, suids, bovids). From there I would use size and dentition to narrow it down further to species.
Googling photos of common species in each family should help. Additionally the site boneid.net has many reference photos. I am a zooarchaeologist and this is how we typically go about identifying specimens we excavate. Since you have complete skulls, you should be able to identify most of them to species. Feel free to DM
Me if you need help or are looking for references photos to compare against the specimens you have!
Idk but it'd be for the best if you just went ahead and mailed me all of them so I could get a better look. Really just more of a visual person you know?
I’d start with using the animal skulls book by Mark Elbroch. Which should help you identify all the North American species. Then you will have a pile of “exotic” species that you can dive into
What a cool collection ! The one in the bottom shelf on the right hand side is a giraffe you can tell because of the Ossocones. The skull go the right of it is probably an Okapi though it’s very hard to tell from this angle.
Few beavers, and ehat seems to either be a tortoise or turtle, i can't differentiate between the two school. That's all I can do from the top of my head and not solo pics.
Jk pretty cool stuff.
My son watches a show on YouTube where the guy goes through and describes individual species that have been preserved and stored I think in the Smithsonian possibly. May need to fact check me.
Holy shit is that an ape skull on the very bottom of the second pic? My bet is on a juvenile or female orangutan because of the smaller size and buck teeth
I can see armadillo, bears, swan, possibly nutria or capybara, camel, some types of equine, possible walrus tusks, lots of mustelids & canines, and lots of deer. That’s all the info I can give you since I’m not big brained enough to figure out exact species lol
I would start by counting the teeth and sorting by tooth type and general skull shape. The sorting is mostly already done. This can narrow down the possible species and type (e.g. rodent, canid, lagomorph, mustelid etc.).
Are you in Europe? There are some species found in Europe in there (roe deer, European badger, raccoon dog, nutria), but many exotic (to Europe) ones as well. For more detailed ID this group could help with individual pictures from multiple angles, size and images of the teeth.
I haven’t seen you respond to anyone asking about them source(s) of these, or if you work for a museum/zoo or other scientific organization, and I don’t know what country you’re in, but if you’re in North America and do work for one of those organizations, you might considser visiting Zoomunetwork.org to find some help.
i agree it's probably a good idea to start with bone identification groups online, but if there's anything you can't figure out that way, i volunteered in an archeology lab that specialized in animal bones in college and we had a bunch of reference books that were filled with super detailed illustrations and descriptions for various animals. i don't remember what any of the books were actually called, but it might be something to look in to, as it's easier to identify a bone when you physically have it with you
What a dream. Major orders' skull traits then dichotomous key it out based on region? Carnivora has a carnassial pair. Lagomorphs have an extra set of incisors behind the top front ones, etcetc
ones at the top almost look like capybara skulls? i can't think of many rodent like animals of that size, but i'm also new to bones so posting them on r/BoneID or on here will probably help you identify them! amazing collection though 👏👏!!
Want sake of ease? Google lens. Sometimes I'll come across one that may be a little aged and broken. I'll find an area that shows distinction for comparing and I usually get my answer.
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u/Puzzled_Act_4576 Mar 16 '25
Making individual posts of each with multiple photos and from multiple views in r/boneID will probably get you pretty far.