Wolf Skull: Diana Silverkiss
I bring you another one of the pack at chez Darling.
This skull is from a fully mature animal, and sits right in the middle of the adult size range for a male. However, based on the relatively slender snout, delicate cheekbones, comparatively small maxillary processes, and less-developed lower jaw, I think this is a slightly above average female.
I call her Diana Silverkiss. This is why:
Her teeth were loose when I got her, so I took out the canines and incisors, applied silver leaf, then replaced them. I think it looks pretty badass.
On the right-hand side, you can see an area of damage to her snout, an old injury to her nasal bones that has now completely healed.
I love this side shot of her. You can see her strong occipital and sagittal crests, but also the relative delicacy of her cheekbones, especially toward the rear. Her lower jaw is also rather slender.
The damaged area of bone on her snout is visible here, too, and you can see where the nasal bones now dip in. I have no doubt the injury would have been visible in life.
A better look at those silver teeth. Love the red reflections.
The inside of the upper teeth, looking mighty fine.
The tip of her right lower canine is broken, and the two tiny premolars just behind the canines are broken and ground down. I may eventually rebuild the premolars with epoxy.
A better shot of the damage to her nasal bones. You can see how they tip down now, and you can also see the calciferous deposits along the raised ridge of the break in the foreground.
Another angle on the old injury. I am just guessing here and I have no training, but I believe she was dealt a glancing blow by a prey animal; though it's conceivable that another wolf could have done it, the shape of the injury looks like a hard, blunt blow and not a sharp, crushing bite.
You can see the breaks in an inverted "U" shape across the nasal bones, and see that it has almost totally filled in. The bones are strong, though misshapen. She would've had a hell of a dent in her snout. It would've made her a little less pretty, and it probably hurt like hell, but it didn't put her down. The injury combined with her large size and maturity paints a picture of what was quite possibly a high-ranking dominant female, one who takes a very active role in hunting and who had the size to hold her own.
This is just a pretty picture.
I will eventually either paint or carve her, so that the teeth seem less out of place. She may very well be the first of the pack to get that treatment. There are seven now.
I pick them up when opportunity knocks, randomly. They are byproducts, leftovers, and the idea that they will go unhonored bothers me. I gather them in so that I can make something beautiful out of them, so that some meaning can be wrung from their deaths. I intended, still intend, to carve them, ornament them, bring some power back to them. As time goes on, they acquire names. Thane and Grendel and Diana were all prepared by the same man, and so I think of them as related -- which they might be. There's Grond Grimtooth and Arya Greeneye. I haven't found names for the last two yet, but you'll see pictures soon enough and I'm sure you will help me with that, as you so delightfully have before.
They are all similar in that they are all wolves and all just bone, and so sometimes I feel a bit odd posting pictures of what must look like very similar skulls to some of you. I try, though, to show you what makes them distinctive, to give you a bit of their story, or the parts of it I can gather. I try to show you what I feel: that a part of them remains, that this is more than something shed, something lost or left behind. They have a presence, gathered all together, a weight.
I love them, my ghost pack.
For the new, a note about bones and ethics.
This skull is from a fully mature animal, and sits right in the middle of the adult size range for a male. However, based on the relatively slender snout, delicate cheekbones, comparatively small maxillary processes, and less-developed lower jaw, I think this is a slightly above average female.
I call her Diana Silverkiss. This is why:
Her teeth were loose when I got her, so I took out the canines and incisors, applied silver leaf, then replaced them. I think it looks pretty badass.
On the right-hand side, you can see an area of damage to her snout, an old injury to her nasal bones that has now completely healed.
I love this side shot of her. You can see her strong occipital and sagittal crests, but also the relative delicacy of her cheekbones, especially toward the rear. Her lower jaw is also rather slender.
The damaged area of bone on her snout is visible here, too, and you can see where the nasal bones now dip in. I have no doubt the injury would have been visible in life.
A better look at those silver teeth. Love the red reflections.
The inside of the upper teeth, looking mighty fine.
The tip of her right lower canine is broken, and the two tiny premolars just behind the canines are broken and ground down. I may eventually rebuild the premolars with epoxy.
A better shot of the damage to her nasal bones. You can see how they tip down now, and you can also see the calciferous deposits along the raised ridge of the break in the foreground.
Another angle on the old injury. I am just guessing here and I have no training, but I believe she was dealt a glancing blow by a prey animal; though it's conceivable that another wolf could have done it, the shape of the injury looks like a hard, blunt blow and not a sharp, crushing bite.
You can see the breaks in an inverted "U" shape across the nasal bones, and see that it has almost totally filled in. The bones are strong, though misshapen. She would've had a hell of a dent in her snout. It would've made her a little less pretty, and it probably hurt like hell, but it didn't put her down. The injury combined with her large size and maturity paints a picture of what was quite possibly a high-ranking dominant female, one who takes a very active role in hunting and who had the size to hold her own.
This is just a pretty picture.
I will eventually either paint or carve her, so that the teeth seem less out of place. She may very well be the first of the pack to get that treatment. There are seven now.
I pick them up when opportunity knocks, randomly. They are byproducts, leftovers, and the idea that they will go unhonored bothers me. I gather them in so that I can make something beautiful out of them, so that some meaning can be wrung from their deaths. I intended, still intend, to carve them, ornament them, bring some power back to them. As time goes on, they acquire names. Thane and Grendel and Diana were all prepared by the same man, and so I think of them as related -- which they might be. There's Grond Grimtooth and Arya Greeneye. I haven't found names for the last two yet, but you'll see pictures soon enough and I'm sure you will help me with that, as you so delightfully have before.
They are all similar in that they are all wolves and all just bone, and so sometimes I feel a bit odd posting pictures of what must look like very similar skulls to some of you. I try, though, to show you what makes them distinctive, to give you a bit of their story, or the parts of it I can gather. I try to show you what I feel: that a part of them remains, that this is more than something shed, something lost or left behind. They have a presence, gathered all together, a weight.
I love them, my ghost pack.
For the new, a note about bones and ethics.