Wolf Skull: Ragnar Bonebiter
This guy is awesome. He's in the preliminary stage of getting engraved. The pencil lines are on him. These were obviously taken before that.
He's sound with good bone structure and a nice, heavy sagittal crest. One of the better-quality skulls I have, in fact.
We will see more of what makes him unique on the tour.
He's a large specimen. He was fully mature but not old, and was rather big for his age, as northern wolves tend to be.
You can get some clues to his approximate age from the texture of the bone, and from the sutures along the nasal bones (see the previous picture) and from how fused the bones of the zygomatic arch (cheekbone) are.
The well-developed sagittal crest is another indicator of maturity.
Here you can see one of the things that makes him distinctive. Take a look at the big shearing tooth on the rear of the upper jaw. You can see where the bone has eroded away from the roots of the tooth and actually left a hole underneath the tooth and between the roots.
I just like this picture.
The strong light shining through the bone here gives you a vague idea of how thick the bone is. Not much light makes it through.
The underside of the skull. Look on the left side, on the roof of the palate near the back teeth. You can just see an area of eroded bone.
In animals with sagittal crests, such as wolves, fishers, big cats, and so forth, the crest begins at the very back of the skull and, as the animal ages, grows forward. The Y-shaped area where the crest branches off into twin ridges is a good indicator of age. The more pronounced and well-developed these ridges are, and the further forward, the older the animal.
You can see the sutures of the bone below the ridges and just on the inside of the eyesockets have almost completely closed.
The long nasal bones fuse at maturity in canines. They are loose in skulls of younger animals, the sutures more open. In this skull, the nasal bones are pretty solidly fixed and do not move about.
Here, light shining through the cheekbone, illuminating the closing suture. It's shots like this that help explain my fascination with bones.
A closeup view of the carnassial tooth, a modified premolar used for slicing. The bone has pulled away from the gum line of the tooth, receding in the wake of some infection. It has retreated entirely from the area between the roots of the tooth.
Note the porous texture of the bone just above the open area between the roots. Rough or pitted bone indicates one of three things: the grainy, fast-growing bone found in younger animals; the rough bone of very old animals; and the pitted bone of an area eroded by infection.
The maceration cleaning process is so gentle it does not actually remove the calculus on the teeth. This scraped easily away.
Finally, a view of the upper premolar and molar teeth. The area inside the large M-shaped carnassial shows a pitted declivity, evidence of an infection.
A closer look at the pathological bone, as well as a good look at the crowns of the teeth. Note the extreme wear on these teeth, and how you can see the different layers of enamel and dentine wearing away like layers of rock.
This was a young animal, but he spent a great deal of time gnawing and chewing. The wear is smooth and evenly-distributed, suggesting that it happened over time, not suddenly (as you would see in an animal that had tried to gnaw its way out of a snare or trap).
A view of the lower jaw, and the worn teeth on the lower mandible. Again, you can see the marked wear on the crowns.
Someone always asks, so: No, I don't know what killed him. Considering he's a leftover from the fur trade, he was probably shot. It's not pretty to contemplate, but at least I will be treating him with respect.
I will be taking progress photos of the engraving as it goes along! I'm pretty excited.
He is unnamed, though I've been referring to him informally as Bonebiter. He obviously liked to chew a lot. He will be joining Thane, Arya, Brand, Grond (Thanks, crows_warning and tripleransom!) and Grendel (thanks to foxipher), as well as one unnamed skull, so throw your names at me in comments!
For the new, a note about bones and ethics.
He's sound with good bone structure and a nice, heavy sagittal crest. One of the better-quality skulls I have, in fact.
We will see more of what makes him unique on the tour.
He's a large specimen. He was fully mature but not old, and was rather big for his age, as northern wolves tend to be.
You can get some clues to his approximate age from the texture of the bone, and from the sutures along the nasal bones (see the previous picture) and from how fused the bones of the zygomatic arch (cheekbone) are.
The well-developed sagittal crest is another indicator of maturity.
Here you can see one of the things that makes him distinctive. Take a look at the big shearing tooth on the rear of the upper jaw. You can see where the bone has eroded away from the roots of the tooth and actually left a hole underneath the tooth and between the roots.
I just like this picture.
The strong light shining through the bone here gives you a vague idea of how thick the bone is. Not much light makes it through.
The underside of the skull. Look on the left side, on the roof of the palate near the back teeth. You can just see an area of eroded bone.
In animals with sagittal crests, such as wolves, fishers, big cats, and so forth, the crest begins at the very back of the skull and, as the animal ages, grows forward. The Y-shaped area where the crest branches off into twin ridges is a good indicator of age. The more pronounced and well-developed these ridges are, and the further forward, the older the animal.
You can see the sutures of the bone below the ridges and just on the inside of the eyesockets have almost completely closed.
The long nasal bones fuse at maturity in canines. They are loose in skulls of younger animals, the sutures more open. In this skull, the nasal bones are pretty solidly fixed and do not move about.
Here, light shining through the cheekbone, illuminating the closing suture. It's shots like this that help explain my fascination with bones.
A closeup view of the carnassial tooth, a modified premolar used for slicing. The bone has pulled away from the gum line of the tooth, receding in the wake of some infection. It has retreated entirely from the area between the roots of the tooth.
Note the porous texture of the bone just above the open area between the roots. Rough or pitted bone indicates one of three things: the grainy, fast-growing bone found in younger animals; the rough bone of very old animals; and the pitted bone of an area eroded by infection.
The maceration cleaning process is so gentle it does not actually remove the calculus on the teeth. This scraped easily away.
Finally, a view of the upper premolar and molar teeth. The area inside the large M-shaped carnassial shows a pitted declivity, evidence of an infection.
A closer look at the pathological bone, as well as a good look at the crowns of the teeth. Note the extreme wear on these teeth, and how you can see the different layers of enamel and dentine wearing away like layers of rock.
This was a young animal, but he spent a great deal of time gnawing and chewing. The wear is smooth and evenly-distributed, suggesting that it happened over time, not suddenly (as you would see in an animal that had tried to gnaw its way out of a snare or trap).
A view of the lower jaw, and the worn teeth on the lower mandible. Again, you can see the marked wear on the crowns.
Someone always asks, so: No, I don't know what killed him. Considering he's a leftover from the fur trade, he was probably shot. It's not pretty to contemplate, but at least I will be treating him with respect.
I will be taking progress photos of the engraving as it goes along! I'm pretty excited.
He is unnamed, though I've been referring to him informally as Bonebiter. He obviously liked to chew a lot. He will be joining Thane, Arya, Brand, Grond (Thanks, crows_warning and tripleransom!) and Grendel (thanks to foxipher), as well as one unnamed skull, so throw your names at me in comments!
For the new, a note about bones and ethics.