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Project Noah Nature School
Mephitis mephitis
Almost 2 inches long
Found right outside of a building.
The experts say that this is a juvenile striped skunk! Apologies to everyone for all the posts!
Sachi and Emily, you have flooded the feed with your comments to this spotting. Please, have this conversation at the Nature Chat, that is what it exists for. Thank you.
Sachi, I tried to look up their range and I couldn't get a clear map of Ohio. If they are around, they can be very elusive. I wouldn't rule them out! Especially now that you've confirmed that it has 4 teeth!
GLeClair, I don't think we have many ermines here in Mentor, Ohio. I've never seen one.
The number of carnassials on an ermine mandible is four (the farthest back can look like two to three, I can understand the mistake), with normally two to three incisors on most carnivores I've seen, and of course, one canine. What leads me to believe this is an ermine is the overall size and lack of a sagittal crest (For those who don't know, a sagittal crest is the area where the jaw muscles attach at the top of the head on part of the skull that looks like a "crest". The bigger the crest, the stronger the muscles). Either way, this is quite the mystery.
Sachi and Emily, maybe you could have this conversation in the nature chat.
I started collecting skulls as a teenager too! It's fun, and I love the osteology mission because it keeps me fresh. I always learn something new! ...I think it's in the weasel or skunk family!
I do think 4 but one of them is REALLY small so I don't even know if that counts haha. I'm really new at this and considering I'm only a teenager who collects skulls... Well...
Oh, I'm confused too! I just enlarged the photos and it does look like fewer teeth then I first thought. Not counting the incisors, how many teeth are on one side of the mandible? 4? 5?
Ok, let me dig into this a little more. If I can't figure it out we might have to wait until the experts get back to me! This is a tough one, but fun!
Like a small plate, I don't know how to describe what I'm thinking, I'm sorry. It was like a small plate size, for bread and whatnot.
No no no it wasn't an owl pellet. It was bigger than that, almost flat except for bumps with the bones like the size of a plate.
It doesn't make any sense... Was the small matted ball of fur about 1 inch - 2 inches long? Could you have found an owl pellet?
If the bones were truly all found in the same bundle of fur, it's not a bat. The bones are too thick...
Did all the bones, skull and mandible come out of the same bundle of fur or were they just found in the same area?
I'm confused too... If you guys want I can post pictures of the other bones I found it with??
Oh, if this helps at all, I found it in a ball of matted black (I think) fur that I dissected.
Well, I'm a little torn. The top part of the skull is damaged enough that I can't really go off of that. So, I am trying to use the mandible to get an accurate ID. So, I think it's either a spotted skunk or some type of bat. Let me run this by one of the skull experts I work with, just to be sure!
My first guess is skunk, but I need to do a little more research! Can you post a photo of the side view?
Spotted on Nov 7, 2012
Submitted on Nov 7, 2012
