Without delay, we continued on with our adventure!
Today, I start with a heart on a Hackberry! After all who doesn’t love a heart!
Just hanging out, a cicada exuvia.
Jeanne spotted one, then another and another. We lined them all up because that is what we do. LOL
Blue Jays have some of most beautiful blue feathers. The blue color is not a pigment. In fact, it is a structural color because of the way light scatters when hitting the feather. Now ain’t that cool.
Further along, this was almost hidden in the leaf litter under a cedar.
A skull! This one was going to take a bit of research at home to ID. So the skull has what I will describe as a short fin on top the back of the skull. In fact, this is called a sagittal crest. Of course, I did not know that at the time it was discovered.
Big eye sockets. And the part that was missing on the snout suggested a Canidae.
While this skull was missing the front of the snout, the back molars were still there.
Molars sealed the deal for me. The reference guide I use now is Animal Skulls, A Guide to North American Species by Mark Elbroch to ID this as a coyote! In the book, it says you can ID between a male and female. Furthermore, it said the sagittal crests were larger on the males. However, with nothing for me to compare it with it will just be a coyote. 🙂
Finally, I hope everyone survived the storm last night without any damage. So all we got was a 40mph wind gust (thank goodness) and .06″ of rain.
“All fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once.” Terry Pratchett
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know
7 Comments
Neat info about the skull. Teeth look worn like the coyote was old. Maybe?
I will be absent from commenting for a week while we play in the snow near RMNP. First flying vacation since Covid.
Interesting articles! The rewilding of the Korean DMZ reminds me of the same process happening around Chernobyl since the nuclear power plant meltdown. We humans need to share a lot better.
Neat info about the skull. Teeth look worn like the coyote was old. Maybe?
I will be absent from commenting for a week while we play in the snow near RMNP. First flying vacation since Covid.
Kathy, that sounds fun. Playing in the snow when and where you want it…in the mountains.
I love skulls. I have a baboon skull found near you Kathy. In creek near the llano river. Neighbor down there gave it to me. Puzzling.
That was a cool baboon skull!
Great article about giving proper credit to African archaeologists!
Sure was! About time folks who knew where stuff was get their credit dued
Interesting articles! The rewilding of the Korean DMZ reminds me of the same process happening around Chernobyl since the nuclear power plant meltdown. We humans need to share a lot better.