With six years of tedious phd work on theropod dinosaurs behind him, Darren Naish stares longingly from his office window at the birds outside and wonders: why did I bother? He pursues exotic lizards and feral cats across the British countryside, occasionally prizes the skeletal jaws from hedgehog corpses, and aims to publish his technical work on obscure Cretaceous dinosaurs. He remains desperately in quest of an academic job that'll last more than a month, and - with a background in TV research, e-learning development, academic editing, popular writing, teaching, landscape gardening, parenting and the wonderful world of retail - he still holds out hope of becoming a dedicated academic. He can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. For more biographical info go 
The amazing skull of a giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, courtesy of Mark Witton. This presumably wasn't an old individual (you can clearly see the sutures of most of its bones), nor does it have the enlarged ossicones and general gnarliness of mature males. The specimen also has a low median hump; in mature males this is generally taller and more like a short horn. Note how shockingly gracile and stretched the premaxillae and dentaries are. For a previous Tet Zoo post on giraffes go here. Proper post hopefully coming later today (though not on giraffes).
Comments
I handled one of a mature male once (at JK's at Oxford). Heaviest damn skull for its size I ever saw...
Posted by: Steve Bodio | May 31, 2007 12:45 PM