A skull with interesting features- see pics

[ivarhusa]

OK, I have never looked at a coyote skull before, so I tend to not know what I am looking at.  Here are photos of the coyote I shot Friday.  I spent hours simmering the skull an scraping it.  What a pain getting brain out through the spinal column aperture.  I haven't bleached it yet (and may work on getting final scraps of cartilage off).  The pics:






What organ or whatever is contained in the pair of ball-like skull protuberances that I highlighted in blue? They have a darker appearance than the rest of the skull, perhaps suggesting it is thinner here (and there may be dark stuff inside yet).

The teeth are a bit remarkable.  The canines don't look particularly formidable.  Tha longest measures 11/16 to where it meets the jaw bone.  There is a full set (6) of tiny teeth across the lower jaw, front. I don't see any teeth to meet them coming down from the top.  Are they missing or is this normal?

Clearly missing are probably 2 to 4 teeth, at locations pointed out in the pictures.  This poor rascal had a hard time tearing food apart on the right side.  The jaw is completely healed over, suggesting that the loss took place quite some time ago.

I was also very impressed with the bone at the lower jaw pivot point. The jaw is supported by a 3/4" wide (left to right dimension, not thickness or diameter) bone.  I point this out in the bottom photo.  It is no wonder these critters can put the munch on so much meat and bone.  They got "the chops".   


I welcome any comments on what I have seen, or perhaps tell me something I didn't see.

I am going back out hunting Sunday AM. A friend's in-laws have an orchard infested with 'yotes. Gonna take a first look at the place.

Ivar
(aka Elmer Fudd at work...)
 

[509er]

must be a down-winder!

[jeepasaurusrex]

I think the blue area is the Atlas joint, where the spine connects to the skull. 

[Ricochet]

Looks like it was an ancient old yote to me, the teeth are in bad shape, very worn.  The part you marked in blue is the ear canal/ear drum area, I think.  Yes, he's missing some teeth on the front/top.  Maybe he was a hockey player.

[PolarBear]

The blue area is part of the ear.  There is some junk in here.  Pop the sack and get that stuff out.

[ivarhusa]

must be a down-winder!

I get it!  If this critter had been alive in the 1950's, he might have taken a dose of radioactive iodine, released by Hanford during what was called a "green run". The critter was roughly "downwind" in Franklin County.

Government contractor DuPont was dissolving irradiated fuel as an early step in the process to extract plutonium for weapons.  The concern at the time was that we had precious little plutonium yet, and they wanted to know how soon after it "cooked" in the reactor, could they usefully get the plutonium out.  They had been waiting over a year (I believe, but don't quote me), and if war came with the Soviet Union, we may need "more sooner".  Glad we didn't need it!

Ivar
(former Hanford worker and fissile material handler)

[ivarhusa]

Yeah, that blue thing has to do with the ears.  I should have seen that.  I can see the canal that takes the sound in there.  Thanks for making that clear.  I will get in there and clean the crap out.

[Gutpile]

Wow that was an old warrior. Great job calling in that old dude. Maybe he was seanile.   

[blindpig]

Not hard to get a blind, deaf senile old yote, no, really good work.  That Hanaford stuff is kind of freaky.

[DOUBLELUNG]

The inner ear housing is the auditory bulla (plural, bullae).  This ancient fella is missing four upper incisors, the little front teeth between the canines.  Full mouth is six upper and six lower incisors, and behind the canines are six upper and 7 lower cheek teeth on each side.  He's missing 10 teeth of 38 total, lots of cool character to that skull.

[boneaddict]

Thats really cool Ivar.  What an old beast.   Imagine the thoughts that dawg has had over the years outsmarting us ALL.  I wonder how much lead he has dodged.  VERY COOL INDEED.

[Wanttohuntmore]

Congrats Ivar, definitely an old yote.  I'm always amazed how pointy their teeth are, course mine are mostly 2 year old dogs.  I've had a few big ones but none with that much character.

[ivarhusa]

Thanks for the feedback, guys, especially doublelung.  I had an idea he was missing some teeth, but had no idea there were so many missing! 

I bleached the skull using one quart of 3% peroxide, achieving "immersion" by putting the peroxide and skull in a gallon Zip-Lock bag. I squished as much air of of the bag as possible (nearly no air) and put four rubber bands around it to hold the bag into a smaller "volume". I let it work over night, and that seemed enough.

It looks much more presentable, now. Even the formerly dark bullae came out bright.  I made a clever little mount to support the skull above the table top by cutting a close-fitting slot in a small block of wood.  It could have been more generously proportioned.  The most important part is getting the slot just slightly wider than the jaw bone.  This took measuring to get it right.





I had no idea when I decided to preserve this skull that it would turn out to be so interesting.  I was just thinking that he had some "pretty small fangs", but just that it would be fun to have a skull.