Happy New Year Zooarchers!
I thought I'd start the year with a mystery ID!
Last year we ran a project in Sheffield that re-housed around 1000 museum skeletal specimens that were either going to be disposed of, or had been in long term storage. For the most part the specimens were in excellent condition and very well labelled, making excellent additions to our already extensive zooarchaeology reference collection. However, we got one almost complete, unlabelled, skeleton (minus skull) of
a cat sized animal from Creswell's surplus modern comparative collection. Despite it being almost complete we are still scratching our heads over what species it is!
It doesn't match anything in our reference collection here in Sheffield. We know it has a long tail and claws, clavicles are present, as are epipubic bones.
I have photographed the humerus, scapula, femur, pelvis and tail which can be seen at the link below:
Any ideas would be
most appreciated. It looks so sad sat in
the lab waiting to be labelled, we'd really love to incorporate it into the collection.
Have a
fantastic 2013 everyone!
All the best, Hannah