What is this? (Not an alien skull)

[MetalPig]

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread183706/pg1

There's not a lot of information on the web about this thing. I've seen alien skull, sheep skull, vertebra and pelvis as possible explanations. (No specific animal was mentioned with the pelvis and vertebra suggestions.)

Does anyone here recognize this as a specific part of a specific animal?

[Cainkane1]

It may not even be a skull. It sure isn't a space alien I can tell you that.

[The_Fire]

Could be PART of a skull.
My guess is that it's the back part of a skull of an animal without the front part.
If you notice, the eyesocket area (the two large holes in the middle with the two smaller ones beneath them) looks rather raw, like something has broken of and the "brain" area also looks like it's part of a bigger struture.
In the pictures where the skull is seen from above, I see, maybe wrongly, what could be the start of the shape of the eyes placement(the slight indentation in the front of the skull), which is set slightly to the side, indicating a preyanimal, not predator.
With no lower jaw and no real comparison sizewise, it's hard to tell.
Since there are no other real indication of where the eyesockets would end (on the side or in front of the skull) or what kind of teeth the animal had while alive, it's kind of hard to narrow it down further, but my guess is:

- Some sort of Mamal
- Probably four legs, all pointing down.
- Possibly a farm animal.
- (pony)
- (sheep)


And maybe I should just have read the later posts in that thread. A young cow seems likely. Or an adult sheep.......

[MG1962]

I must confess, looks like a pelvis of some sort

[Schneibster]

It's a ruminant (sheep/cow/horse) skull, with the snout broken off; judging from the extensive cushioning processes on the top, it's the skull of a buck, but I might be wrong and it might be a mountain goat, or even a domestic ram or bull. Ruminant males all have this to cushion the shock of dueling with one another with their horns or antlers, which they do to keep their herd of females.

You can see the sinuses; they look all crinkly and full of little holes around the main sinus cavity, where the little blood vessels that warm the air in them go. The upper and lower jaws are gone, which is why you can see the sinuses. You're looking at the back half of the skull, containing the brain case and the processes that support the jaw and neck muscles, as well as the supports for the horns or antlers.

The big arch on the upper left of the third photo is a support process for the jaw muscles, I think; the arch that the jaw muscles pass through before they anchor to the skull. In a human, that's the zygomatic arch, where the big muscles that drive the mandible (lower jaw) pass through before they attach to the sides of the brain case. Since we don't have the long snouts and heavy jaws that many mammals do, they're much lower down and smaller on us. You can tell right where it is by clamping and unclamping your jaw while you run your fingers up and down the sides of your head in front of your ears; the place where you don't feel things moving underneath is where the arch goes over the muscles. Usually, it's just about in line with your cheekbones and your earholes.

[Big Les]

There are a couple of decent theories on that ATS - hydrocephaly and/or other human deformity, and this one;

Using a young cow's skull, by force, he accelerated the normal process of breaking the skull (naturally this happens for a year or so after the death of the cow) and received as a result an exact copy of the mysterious skull. This TV show took place after the first skull was found in 2001. End of Mystery!

Unfortunately the link to the actual comment (http://me.blastforge.com/index.php?topic=bulgarian&page=1) is currently dead, so we can't easily check up further on this. It sounds promising to me.

I don't think it's actually a spinal bone/mass as someone else suggests. The upper part with the apparent parietal line really does look like a deformed skull- the "face" less so admittedly.

ETA - sorry, had this open for ages before submitting, so I'm a bit behind. Ah well.

[Fiona]

I have absolutely no knowledge of this subject but I have to say it looked like a jigsaw puzzle to me :)

[XBoxWarrior]

Not too sure about the "Bone" thing....but that dude holding it looks like a high priest in the "Church of Woo".

[MetalPig]

Thanks Scheibster, that's an excellent explanation.

(Until now, I thought of you as the forum's 'quantum physics guy', I had no idea you knew about these things as well. (Apologies if the 'guy' bit is wrong.).)

[Schneibster]

The "guy" part is right, so no need for apologies.

I know my way around a rather eclectic bunch of science and natural history; mainly what I've taken an interest in, because that usually means I've bought some books on it and maybe even gotten my hands dirty a bit. Comparative anatomy happens to be one of those things. But I can't say I know as much about it as I do about physics. I'm also by no means the most knowledgeable person here about physics; there are at least two professional physicists here. On the other hand, I'm pretty good at explaining it.

[blobru]

It's a ruminant (sheep/cow/horse) skull, with the snout broken off;...

Well, that's one opinion.

With a slightly different take is reknowned (Bulgarian) psychic Koubrat Tomov (http://page.freett.com/dateiwao/blg_skull.htm):
The creature could be a product of the Atlanteans, which was created to serve man. [ I ] believe that it was a scientific experiment which, in all likelihood, had been unsuccessful but which can 'overturn the notions of our existence on Earth'.


So who are you going to believe: some online skeptic who claims to have read a book, or renowned Bulgarian psychic Koubrat Tomov? :p

[Tokenconservative]

It may not even be a skull. It sure isn't a space alien I can tell you that.

I've killed and eaten a lot of aliens and boiled their heads down to make head cheese and this doesn't look much like one of those.

Wait...what?

SPACE alien?

Oh...I meant ILLEGAL alien.

Never mind!

Tokie

[Tokenconservative]

It's clearly a chupacabra skull.

Duh.

Tokie

[sinclairmcevoy]

I'm gonna go with the online skeptic, since he can type (apparently) he can probably read. And, he may have read a book or two. Maybe. The lesser of two evils is still evil though.

[sinclairmcevoy]

It's clearly a chupacabra skull.

Duh.

Tokie

Clearly you're a Tokin' Conservative.

[Tokenconservative]

Clearly you're a Tokin' Conservative.

Duuudddee....

...no, wait...what?

[bruto]

Yah yah yah, so it's a cow. You can't prove that it isn't a cow from outer space. You skeptics are all the same.

[Dogdoctor]

I wish I could see the other side of it. My guess would be part of a large turtle shell (vertebra fused to shell as it normally is). Other than that would be a vertebra from a large animal.

[robinson]

http://img2.travelblog.org/Photos/18141/64023/f/379990-Day1-Elk-Skull-0.jpg

Elk skull seems pretty spot on.

[Big Les]

I've been trawling photos looking for something similar too. I think Scheibster is right that It's the braincase of a ruminant skull. Getting a decent match online is almost impossible though, because something or someone has broken off the muzzle, jaw, eye orbits, and other outer bits, leaving a very unfamiliar (you might even say "alien") looking bony object.

What we need is for someone to "have at" a deer (or similar) skull and see how like the "alien" one they can make it.

[AgeGap]

Look at the sacral area here http://www.answers.com/topic/pelvis-4?cat=health

[Big Les]

I see what you mean (in fact, those "loops" were what I was specifically looking to ID on the photos I was looking at) but the rest of it doesn't fit. There are the sinuses, the top of the skull, the inside of the brain-case etc;

http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/540/posshoaxes0103s2vb.jpg
http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/3307/posshoaxes0104s7cc.jpg

[Dogdoctor]

I see what you mean (in fact, those "loops" were what I was specifically looking to ID on the photos I was looking at) but the rest of it doesn't fit. There are the sinuses, the top of the skull, the inside of the brain-case etc;

http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/540/posshoaxes0103s2vb.jpg
http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/3307/posshoaxes0104s7cc.jpg

Is there an area that looks like the inner surface of a skull (the part next to the brain)? From those photos I would have to think not.
eta: I think that could represent something around the hypophyseal fossa the holes would be nasal choanae and the foramen orbitorotundum of a skull but it is difficult to say from the photo. If it was, it would have to be a fairly large animal.

[DarwinsButterfly]

I like how the space alien "theory" comes before the more rational sheep skull hypothesis.

Oh and bruto, DNA testing should settle whether or not the cow is from outer space! :duck:

[Big Les]

Is there an area that looks like the inner surface of a skull (the part next to the brain)? From those photos I would have to think not.
eta: I think that could represent something around the hypophyseal fossa the holes would be nasal choanae and the foramen orbitorotundum of a skull but it is difficult to say from the photo. If it was, it would have to be a fairly large animal.

Yep. (http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/5353/posshoaxes0102s3kr.jpg)

[JFrankA]

I don't think that it's an alien skull because when I held it upsidedown and in the mirror, I saw the face of Jesus!!!!!!!!! :D









































----- (in case you haven't guessed, I'm joking about the Jesus thing)

[Dogdoctor]

Yep. (http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/5353/posshoaxes0102s3kr.jpg)

That view would probably represent the nasal cavity and not the brain cavity. Not positive about this but that would be my guess.

[Big Les]

I'm way out of my depth here. This (http://www.universaltreasures.com/images/deer%20top.JPG) is a deer braincase cast if that helps at all.

[MetalPig]

Success!

The woowoo who was 'undecided' about the thing is now convinced that the skull is not from an alien, but from an earthly animal.

Thanks for helping, all! :)

[Schneibster]

Amusing. Glad it helped.