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Macabre, but interesting |
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Vicar
Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1184 |
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Posted: 19 Sep 2007 at 8:27am |
Stopped off to visit the Shoreham wall lizard colony at the weekend, when Sarah called me over to see the Slow worm corpse she'd found.
Amazing to see how prominant the teeth are when the flesh partly decays. I've been bitten by Af plenty of times in the past, and have never felt teeth. Quite the interesting photo...I thought ? |
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arvensis
Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Location: Hampshire Status: Offline Points: 493 |
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I found a dead Af in a similar way a few weeks back, there was puncture wounds halfway down the body, so I assume it was possibly killed by a cat(it is a sub-urban site). One thing thats stands out apart from the teeth in the photo is the eye socket. Skeleton preparation anyone?
Mark Edited by arvensis |
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snakey
Member Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 32 |
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unfortunately i found 2 dead slow-worms in a similar state of decomposition at shoreham about 3 weeks ago whilst my son and i were walking along the beach behind the houses, and i was just telling him that the culprit was probably a domestic cat, when a fox(full of mange) came trotting out of someones garden in broad daylight and straight past us without so much as a passing glimpse at us. in hindsight the culprit probably was a cat because a fox would have eaten them rather than just killing them
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tim hamlett
Senior Member Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1062 |
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steve, i know what you mean about it being a bit macabre but what an absolutely fascinating image. i rememeber reading somewhere that slowworms are considered to be relatively closely related to snakes because they are anguimorphs and have "fang-like teeth" but i'd never have believed it before seeing your pic. i still find anatomy a bit baffling but if you look at this lizard skull i've had for a couple of years (sorry about the image quality but i've had a couple of pints...and even more sorry the rest of the skeleton hasn't survived but it's had a couple of years of handling from me and the kids and slowly but surely disintegrated)... but the differences are really quite obvious. thanks tim sorry...not much better. but i suppose since i've had a couple more pints it's to be expected. tim Edited by tim hamlett |
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snakey
Member Joined: 14 Sep 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 32 |
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which species of lizard is the skull from tim, is it a native lizard?
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tim hamlett
Senior Member Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1062 |
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i found it under a rock in wales along with the rib cage and spine, so i'm pretty sure it's a common lizard. tim |
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