Comments | naamah_darling: Wolverine Skull

naamah_darling

Wolverine Skull

Aug 28, 2009 02:24

I don't think I've posted these. I think they just made it onto Flickr, but I got busy moving and forgot to share. My bad. I'm still working on the Etsy update, but in the meantime, here, have some bones.

This is the skull of a good-sized adult male wolverine.

( Read more... )

bones, bone pics, pics, animals

Comments 51

(The comment has been removed)

naamah_darling August 28 2009, 18:16:30 UTC

There. I found the right icon to use in this instance to express my VERY IMPORTANT DISAPPROVAL. OMG. STUPID PEOPLE.

goth_hobbit August 28 2009, 21:17:50 UTC

Ummm ...yeah. That's not just not taking the time to fact-check; that's bordering on willfully ignoring that such a thing exists. Definitely howl-worthy.

pixxelpuss August 28 2009, 15:44:30 UTC

Ooh, this is so pretty.

diatryma August 28 2009, 16:23:40 UTC

Could you post a comparison to the hyena, please? They look similar in my memory, but I'd like to see the convergent evolution on More Badass Than Thou.

phyrbyrd August 28 2009, 17:03:34 UTC

Wow.
And I learn more from University of Naamah - I didn't actually know that a wolverine was a type of weasel. That is actually pretty scary, my god. I don't think I really thought about it but if I had, I'd have said it was one of the bear family, like the badger.
I also didn't know that carnivore teeth don't grow throughout a lifetime. Are they born with a full set of full-sized gnashers? I'm having a little trouble imagining a little baby cub with a rack of knives like that.

phyrbyrd August 28 2009, 17:11:13 UTC

Oh, duh, there's me saying the badger is ACTUALLY a bear instead of being REFERRED to as a bear. Do excuse the dumb, I just woke up.

naamah_darling August 28 2009, 18:26:07 UTC

Gotcha. (Hey, I just woke up, too, and it's 1:30 in the afternoon, and I'm proud of myself for being up EARLY.)

naamah_darling August 28 2009, 18:21:11 UTC

Badgers are weasels, too. The thick-necked cantankerous uncles of the weasel family who want those damn kids off their lawn.

They get two sets of teeth like we do, but they don't have perpetually-growing gnawers like rodents do; a rodent's gnawing teeth are super-deep-rooted because they're always growing outward. And ungulate dentition is a whole nother thing. They have really bizarre, amazing teeth. I haven't got any good comparative specimens of hoofed beasties, or I would compare.

Some hyenas, now, ARE born with teeth, and that alone is enough to make me love them to pieces.

Thread 8

weaselmom August 28 2009, 17:19:39 UTC

So beautiful! We have wolverines at Northwest Trek up by Mt. Rainier, and they are really gorgeous. But dear Lord, they stink to high heaven. Mustelids are pretty whiffy in general, but you could bounce a quarter off this pong. We watched a juvenile playing with a stick, and she was having the best time ever just playing her brains out. Somewhere on my iFlip I have some video of two wolverines playing with each other just like two ferrets, but with the giant teeth and claws.

I remember reading a story (in National Geographic? some mag anyway) about a family who actually interacted with wolverines all the time, like in their yard and house, and they said they were great animals - not at all irascible.

naamah_darling August 28 2009, 18:23:11 UTC

*dies of cute*

I have heard intermittent accounts of wolverines being okay to deal with. It appears to matter whether the wolverine perceives you as being a) a threat or b) between you and anything it wants. I imagine if they accepted you as part of the territory and were used to the stuff you did, they'd be fine. Most predators are pretty adaptable that way.