First fledgling of the year that needed help.
Flame Lined Chiton
(Tonicella lokii)
also referred to as Loki’s Chiton, is a chiton of the genus Tonicella. they can be identified by the blue, white, purple or black zig-zagged lines on their eight valves. on their girdle they have radiating bands of a yellow and red color. they are similar in behavior and appearance to the lined chiton (T. lineata) except in that the lined chiton lacks the bands on it’s girdle. like most chitons they can be found on rocks that have been encrusted by algae to allow the animal to blend in while it feeds on said algae. i can only assume this species was named after the Norse god and avengers villain Loki.
Phylogeny
Animalia-Mollusca-Polyplacophora-Neoloricata-Lepidochitonidae-Tonicella-lokii
Quick sneak peak of a post that I’ll be making after our exam!
Happy Birthday to David Attenborough!!
87 years and still going strong!
(via the-best-tool-we-have)
Skull Post Number 3. This skull belongs to a Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) that was found while on holiday in the North of France. The cormorant was fully fleshed so the head was removed and brought home. After a couple of months in the ground and some time in hydrogen peroxide it was ready to go into my collection.
The photo of the cormorant was taken on a small local loch.
I actually have another cormorant that is still in the ground waiting to be dug up.
At the weekend BoneMonger and I went to collect some owl pellets from a local wood, we ended up finding a lot more than we had hoped for. I ended up filling the tub I had taken with me and had to use a sandwich bag to collect some more.
After a couple of hours cleaning and dissecting the pellets I counted up all the skulls that I had found and found out that I had collected 140 skulls!
Most of the skulls are not complete as they are very fragile and therefore are missing the brain cases, zygomatic arches, teeth and in some cases most of the skull. None of the skulls are completely whole but five are quite complete with only a few bits missing.
All of these skulls belong to rodents, either mice or voles. I have yet to identify them down to species as it is a long process of counting teeth under a microscope. What was surprising when dissecting the pellets was the lack of amphibian bones, which is odd because the wood where these are from has lots of toads in it.
I have yet to count out the jaw bones as there are so many.
The pictures show some the whole collection and parts of it.
Whats good is that we know that the wood where these were collected from has lots more pellets for us to collect during the summer.
Skull Post Number 2. This skull belongs to a Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) that was found on the beach at North Berwick, Edinburgh. The remains were partially decomposed so were brought home and buried in a plant pot for a few weeks, before being taken out and washed. Then into some hydrogen peroxide before entering my collection.
The photo of the fulmar was taken on the Isle of May which is actually very close to North Berwick.
I actually have two fulmar skulls in my collection but there’s no point of them both having a post.
