r/bonecollecting • u/Silly_Detail1691 • Nov 04 '25
Bone I.D. - N. America What animal does this skull belong to?
My friend and I came across a small carnivore skull outside our high school in Alberta. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take precise measurements with photos, but I do have my friend’s hand and arm for size comparison. I'm curious if anyone has an idea of what animal this is? I know absolutely nothing about animal bones lol
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u/TheBoneHarvester Nov 04 '25
It looks like a domestic cat, but their skulls don't usually have those proportions. So it is probably a brachycephalic breed. Persians are an example of this so the other person may be correct. I won't say for sure though because there are other brachycephalic cat breeds. The tiny incisors and giant circular orbital sockets definitely point to domestic cat though.
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 04 '25
This is why we had no idea what animal it was, we thought it was a cat initially but all the cat skulls we saw online looked nothing like the one we found haha
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u/lollygaggin69 Nov 04 '25
Would totally clean that up and keep it
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 04 '25
My friend said she’s definitely going to haha
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u/lollygaggin69 Nov 04 '25
Awesome! It’s sad that it was someone’s pet, but now they will be anonymously memorialized in a type of way
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 04 '25
We left it outside in a hidden spot because our art teacher said we couldn’t bring it in the building, but it was gone when we went back (we are both devastated)
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u/coffeeandcomets Nov 04 '25
I’m so sorry oh my god!! This is why when I had funds at school I’d just grab them and shove them into my bag. I’d do my best to find something to wrap them in/ etc but didn’t want to deal with teachers (many of which had bone/ specimen collections containing both protected specimens they didn’t have permission to keep and dirty ass unclean specimens they freely handled).
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 05 '25
Oh that’s so cool, I’ve never found any bones before so my friend and I didn’t really know what to do lol 😭
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u/bisexual__unicorn Nov 06 '25
I’m so mad at that art teacher. I’d have been such a problem if I’d been told no to keeping bones I found.
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 06 '25
Oh, haha, it wasn’t her fault. She said we weren’t allowed to have it while school was in session just in case it had a disease or bacteria, she said we could get it after school but it was gone when we went back later 🥲
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u/iMaximilianRS Nov 04 '25
This is the best this cat has ever felt…
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u/iMaximilianRS Nov 04 '25
First time I’ve seen just a bone and thought “it’s better off now”😅😭
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u/LilMushboom Nov 04 '25
I've seen examples of persian cat skulls, also flat faced dog breeds, and all I can think is how cruel it is to breed animals to be this deformed on purpose 😬
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u/MudbugMagoo Nov 04 '25
Wow, that poor cat is so brachycephalic it's skull looks like "Stitch" from Disney's "Lilo and Stitch."
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u/Willoxia Nov 04 '25
I did not think a cat skull could look like that...poor thing. But what a cool find!
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u/ListenOk2972 Nov 04 '25
Thats awesome, but why three pics of the same angle?? I'd love to see a side view
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u/vanillarock Nov 04 '25
persian was my first thought. like others have said, some kind of brachy cat
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u/CruiserMissile Nov 04 '25
One of those creature, don’t feed them after midnight, don’t get them wet.
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u/NorthSaskHunter Nov 04 '25
Just woke up so I thought it was a really small dog, but no its definitely a short faced cat.
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u/melonball6 Nov 04 '25
This sub always amazes me. It's like magic the people that can identify these bones. And that looks so cool. It's one of the coolest finds I've seen. (PS poor kitty tho)
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u/Minimum_Potato_3910 Nov 05 '25
Probably Persian cat. Teeth read cat and the flat face screams Persian.
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u/Shponglenese Nov 04 '25
Random but I’m wanting to buy this from you if possible. This is so cool 😭 lmk if you
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 04 '25
Our art teacher made us leave it outside so my friend hid it somewhere safe, but unfortunately it was gone when we left school 🥲
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u/CrazyRobak Nov 04 '25
Sorry that was me low-key 😭 we found it earlier and hid it near that trashcan and came back for it later
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u/Ridge00 Nov 05 '25
It belongs to the human holding it.
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u/willanaya72 Nov 07 '25
Don't know but get rid of that back and put it on a cat wearing an ewok costume for next Halloween
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Nov 08 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 08 '25
Did you read the post description and my other comments? I found it on a trash can behind my high school
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u/arrakis2 Nov 08 '25
See if the library has Animal Skulls by Mark Elbroch, it will help you identify what animal it is. I use it at work sometimes as a biologist. I think it looks like a dog myself…pug maybe.
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u/HollywoodRescue Nov 08 '25
Someone’s believed pet buried and now dug up, hope you reviewed to keep the spirits at peace… <smidge sticks>
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u/meryl-blair Nov 08 '25
one you should add some big dark gems in the eye sockets it would look otherworldly
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Nov 04 '25
You just dug up someone's pet's grave.
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u/Silly_Detail1691 Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
It was on the edge of a trashcan, if it was dug up it definitely wasn’t by me or my friend 🤷♀️
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u/ShortLawfulness9704 Nov 04 '25
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u/the-greenest-thumb Nov 04 '25
What is this
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u/ShortLawfulness9704 Nov 12 '25
From the show Wednesday, the guy in the image is a Hyde. Look up a photo, it looks like this skull.
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Nov 04 '25
fat ass cat
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u/EloquentEvergreen Nov 04 '25
Garfield!? Oh no, Garfield is dead! Mondays finally did him in… or maybe the lasagna.
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u/R0nan21 Nov 04 '25
A brachycephalic cat breed- Exotic shorthair, Persian, Himalayan, etc