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Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Portsmouth, UK) who mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs. He also studies such things as the swimming abilities of giraffes and fossil marine reptiles. An avid interest in modern wildlife and conservation has resulted in many adventures in lizard-chasing, bird-watching and litter-collecting. I've been blogging since 2006 and a compilation of early Tet Zoo articles is now available in book form as Tetrapod Zoology Book One. Additional recent books include The Great Dinosaur Discoveries and Dinosaurs Life Size. For more biographical info go here. I can be contacted intermittently at eotyrannus (at) gmail dot com. PLEASE NOTE: I am now completely unable to keep up with email correspondence. I do my best to respond to all queries and requests, but please don't be offended if I fail to reply. I blog from and about conferences - please contact me for more info. Follow me on twitter: @TetZoo.
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« Sea lions really are quite impressive | Main | It's all about me (actually, it's not) »
Category: picture of the day
Posted on: June 22, 2007 5:54 AM, by Darren Naish
Given all the fun that everyone had recently with the Southern sea lion skull, I thought you'd all enjoy the chance to have a go with another specimen. This one's a lot easier, no prizes for getting it right. Let battle commence!
PS - yesterday's artice on sea lions was ver 2's 100th entry - wahey!
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/43683
Comments
Umm... A baboon? or a mandril (sorry, don't know the exact word in English for Mandrillus. That blue-faced ape). It's a impressive predatory face!
Posted by: Luis Daniel | June 22, 2007 6:32 AM
This is definitely a baboon.
Posted by: nemo ramjet | June 22, 2007 6:36 AM
I'm going to guess a male Chacma Baboon.
Posted by: Cameron | June 22, 2007 6:57 AM
Male baboon? Which Papio species I'm not too sure.
Posted by: Hai~Ren | June 22, 2007 7:02 AM
Forward facing eyes in a mammal=primate. Was gona say gorilla but the snout is to long. So baboon? hmm banana, squashed banana...
Posted by: Neil | June 22, 2007 7:31 AM
baboon-type thing, definitely. Mandrill? Gelada?
Posted by: ross | June 22, 2007 7:42 AM
I know what it is, it´s the skull of this mummified sea monster: http://www.neatorama.com/images/2006-06/mummified-sea-monster.jpg ...
Well, it is a skull of some kind of baboon, perhaps a chacma baboon, but I´m not 100% sure about this.
Those baboon skulls are really impressive, I think they are among the most "monstrous" skulls of all modern mammals.
Posted by: Sordes | June 22, 2007 7:49 AM
It's a baboon skull but I'm not sure of the species. Hmm, hamadryas or olive? I guess I'll think on it.
Posted by: Diego | June 22, 2007 7:59 AM
a baboon?
Posted by: KS | June 22, 2007 8:20 AM
I would not have guessed the sea lion although it was very clear to me that it was a mammal.
But this looks looks very much like a Baboon (Papio) to me.
Posted by: Lars | June 22, 2007 8:30 AM
baboon?
Posted by: tai haku | June 22, 2007 8:35 AM
Adult male baboon/mandrill
Posted by: Dave Hughes | June 22, 2007 8:55 AM
An old male baboon. I would say savanna baboon, or chacma baboon if this is indeed a full species and not just a subspecies of the savanna baboon. The skull of a male hamadryas has a ridge above the braincase, wich is lacking here, the gelada has a much deeper mandible - probably because of its granivorous diet - and the mandrill has a much more pronounced "stop" - if I am allowed to use this canine term when referring to a primate - between the snout and the forehead. This leaves the chacma baboon.
Posted by: johannes | June 22, 2007 9:31 AM
forward eyes, long jaw, big teef...funny, even as a non biologist I was going to say baboon...
Posted by: Tengu | June 22, 2007 9:42 AM
Mandrill. Male. Adult. (And not geriatric like the last specimen).
Posted by: chris wemmer | June 22, 2007 10:59 AM
Not an expert on skulls, (or much else for that matter), but I'll throw my tuppence worth into the ring. A Chacma baboon........canines look too short for a mandrill.
Posted by: Shaun Stevens | June 22, 2007 10:59 AM
Too late for this skulduggery :) Anyhow that looks like Papio ursinus. P. sphinx males seem to have more curved and longer canines. Geladas have a "Homo erectus" like ridge on the brow- so this is definitely not that. Papio show the groove in their canines (as seen in this specimen) that apparently was mistaken in a fossil mammal Bisonalveus to be a poison delivering groove. A good counter example from Papio.
Posted by: Rajita | June 22, 2007 11:21 AM
Seeing as it looks almost exactly like this, I'm going to agree with Rajita: Papio ursinus.
Posted by: Keesey | June 22, 2007 11:50 AM
Baboon - not mandrill (lacks the bony flanges down the side of the nostrils) nor gelada (lacks the heavy brow ridge) - the overall shape looks a little more like the skulls of southern baboons (Chacma or Yellow) rather than northern (Hamadryas, Guinea etc)- so I think it's probably a male Chacma baboon or yellow baboon.
Posted by: mark lees | June 22, 2007 12:03 PM
Baboon, not mandrill or gelada.
Posted by: Steve Bodio | June 22, 2007 12:05 PM
This may be a bit anticlimactic, but I think it's a baboon. ;-)
Posted by: Placozoan | June 22, 2007 3:20 PM
I am somewhat surprised at the ideas given here that the skulls if from a babboon. Its synapsid features show that it is a from the Synapsida but its dentition features and tremendous cranial ridges show that it is of the Permian gorgonopsian group. It is a shame that they is no scale in the picture becuase this is making the skull look small, it must really be large and this would show its gorgon identity best. I have done a big study of these animals and know this.
Posted by: Mwaka Unguti | June 22, 2007 4:10 PM
Yeah, I'll go with the crowd and say it's a baboon. I'll even go out on a limb (cause I ain't no expert) and say it's a yellow baboon, papio cynocephalus. From the little I know P. ursinus has smaller canines then the critter shown above.
Posted by: Susan | June 22, 2007 6:41 PM
Well, I at least know a baboon skull when I see one. I was going to guess a mandrill, but I am convinced by the arguments of those above who think it is a chacma. Also, now I seem to be recalling that the cheekbones of a mandrill flare out really weirdly (but I may be mistaken).
A gorgonopsid? I think you are being tricked by the perspective or something -- not with the close-together, forward-facing eyes. Although if you block out the farther eye and the farther half of the nasal region, and pretend that you are looking at a straight lateral view, it does look a little like a gorgon, weirdly. But gorgons didn't have molars, did they?
Posted by: Stevo Darkly | June 23, 2007 12:01 AM
It would also be a sensation to have a subfossil skull of a gorgonopsid...
Posted by: Sordes | June 23, 2007 6:45 AM
Papio ursinus
Posted by: Ville Sinkkonen | June 23, 2007 8:23 AM
No way this is a gorgonopsian. Forward-facing eyes; fused nostrils; just two incisors per jaw quarter; huge mammalian postcanines; somewhat short canines that are round in cross-section; a completely bloated braincase; no postdentary bones or angular process; no prefrontal, postfrontal, or postorbital (the postorbital bar consists entirely of the frontal and the jugal); and the lateral ridges on the snout are unexpected for a gorgonopsian, too. With that tooth formula it must be a catarrhine.
Last but not least, the skull does not look fossil, does it?
Posted by: David Marjanović | June 23, 2007 10:50 AM
Stevo, I think that Mwaka must be deliberately either making a joke or trying to lead people off the consensus path of baboon with a red herring (or red gorgonopsid as the case may be).
Posted by: Diego | June 23, 2007 12:07 PM
Although everyone has already said this, when I first saw it, I immediately knew that it was a papionid primate. (If that is even a word) I love the canines! I also love the cranium of a Chinese water deer...nice canines also. Anyway, an old male since the sutures are obliterated.
Posted by: Jason Fox | June 23, 2007 1:35 PM
Uruk-Hai?
Posted by: John H | June 24, 2007 1:22 AM
I have to ask, when did baboon/drill muzzles slope like that? Aren't there other monkeys with muzzles, ones that slope?
Posted by: Alan Kellogg | June 24, 2007 4:41 AM
Which sutures are obliterated? I see lots of sutures all over the place.
Posted by: David Marjanović | June 24, 2007 8:09 PM
I'm putting my money down on a Theropithecus gelada, a Gelada Baboon.
Posted by: Mishal | June 25, 2007 12:10 AM
I think it's a baboon, but I can't narrow down the species.
Posted by: Emile | June 25, 2007 5:23 AM
The skulls of geladas look very different from this skull. This is a comparably typical baboon skull, but those of geladas have a much shorter muzzle, large eye-brows and are much more robust overall.
Posted by: Sordes | June 25, 2007 6:15 AM
for the ridges on snout sides....perhaps a Sulawesi baboon?(not remember the scientific name)
Posted by: Edgar | June 26, 2007 4:10 PM
> for the ridges on snout sides....perhaps a Sulawesi baboon?(not > remember the scientific name)
Edgar,
what you mean is probably the Celebes Crested Macaque (Macaca nigra).
It is a stout, sizeable animal as far as macaques go, but not a true baboon, at least not in the traditional meaning of that term.
Posted by: johannes | June 27, 2007 11:44 AM
Thanks Johannes, i mean just this species, and refer to the baboon-like snout it had(and looks pretty like a baboon)
Posted by: Edgar | July 5, 2007 8:03 PM
Sea Mammal or Fish
Posted by: ed | December 24, 2007 12:31 PM
I think it's Pongo pygmageus ? if you not collection mammalian skull from Indonesian Island please contact me but not appendix mammalian skull.
Posted by: Kris | January 14, 2008 1:05 PM
I think it's Pongo pygmageus ? if you want collection mammalian skull from Indonesian Island please contact me but not appendix mammalian skull.
Posted by: Kris | January 14, 2008 1:09 PM