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Macabre, but interesting

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Vicar View Drop Down
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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 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote arvensis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Sep 2007 at 10:34am
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


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote snakey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Sep 2007 at 10:51am
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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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tim hamlett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Sep 2007 at 6:54pm

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



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote snakey Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Sep 2007 at 11:00am
which species of lizard is the skull from tim, is it a native lizard?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tim hamlett Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Sep 2007 at 2:38pm

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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