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Project Noah Nature School
"Perhaps no other group of vertebrates, except possibly the fishes, has been as neglected osteologically as have the birds" Stanley J Olsen
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Mammal, probably an ungulate
Looks like a stinkbug, which can't cause any sort of harm to humans.
Marsh rabbits have shorter ears, faces and bodies:
https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profi...
And the range matches swamp rabbits, not marsh rabbits:
https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/tag/sw...
It looks like it only has six legs, so I don't think it's a myriapod or isopod. Maybe a roach?
This is an amazing find! This is a fish skull with hyperostosis, or excessive bone growth. The large bony device is still part of the skull, just "inflated" or "swollen" looking because of the overgrowth. This is a fairly poorly understood phenomenon, but it only occurs in marine fish species (though in many different families across the board from there, including snappers, jacks and batfish to name a few). Fish bones that exhibit hyperostosis are called "Tilly Bones" after the paleontologist Dr. Johanna Gabrielle Ottelie Edinger who held a particular fascination for them.
Really awesome find, again. Here are some more links on Tilly Bones:
https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/an...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetar...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetar...
And my project for them on iNaturalist, with even more links, info and pictures:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/til...
There's also an "Identifying Animals Through Osteology" mission this pelvis would be right at home in
Thank you so much for the new pictures! You're definitely right about it being a merlin, falcons have much thicker pelvises in shape than accipitriformes, which tend to be a bit curvier than this. The last picture was also extremely helpful, the vertebra arrangement is a much better match for falcons than hawks. The merlin pelvis in the link I gave measures at right about 3.5 cm from the ventral (top) veiw and 4 cm from the lateral (side) veiw, which seems to be a fit your pelvis. Merlins also seem to have a bit curvier of an ischial angle than other falcons like the kestrel, so that's one thing that threw me off but confirms it's a merlin. Really neat find you have, it's such a beautiful little bone.
I know for a fact based off of the bill and wishbone it's a member of Anatidae, and it'll be uphill from there. The pin feathers suggest the bird isn't done growing which makes skeletal IDing more difficult, and the very damaged, eroded, and incomplete remains aren't helping either. There are clues though, like the point on the wishbone and length of the bill. It'll take a lot of research, but I think I should be able to narrow it down in time.
I added more notes and stuff. I like the open ended journal but it can be a bit intimidating still, trying to figure out what kind of stuff to write about. Thank you for your help!
