Nottingham Natural History Museum

[AnimalToyForum]

Correct! It is a sebright chicken, and particulary well done for spotting the red-legged partridge (in a sitting position), the helmeted guineafowl, and the puffin!

The robin is the other easy easy bird to identify, just not from that angle (I think it's he one you thought was a crosbill). There is also a zebra finch visible in the photo. There's also a tawny owl to go into this case.

I'll share more pictures soon, also of the other new cases!

[Advicot]

  that's a Sebright chicken, I have never had them in my menagerie of pets so I didn't realise how big they were, I thought they were much smaller

[Isidro]

They're small, of the size of a bantam.
He're ones that I cared for, long time ago:

[AnimalToyForum]

Here's a display I was working on today, bothe sections will go together in the same case, one above the other. ID game round 2?

[AnimalToyForum]

Also, here's one for you (I can't remember if I shared this previously). What's this?

[Advicot]

So we have a Savannah cat, plum headed parakeet, European hedgehog, pygmy mouse, fly agaric mushroom and I'm not too sure about the fish. Now that bird... this is tricky, it looks like a menagerie of different birds created into one, I don't know 

[Advicot]

Oops I forgot the other photo, fire salamander, grass snake, spiny lobster, edible crab, African bullfrog, common razor, common limpet, cowry shell, fool gold or iron pyrite, quartz and the rest I don't know

[Lanthanotus]

[...]
.. this is tricky, it looks like a menagerie of different birds created into one, I don't know 

I tend to agree, several parts look familiar, but the combination of all.... a "Wolpertinger"?

[AnimalToyForum]

[...]
.. this is tricky, it looks like a menagerie of different birds created into one, I don't know 

I tend to agree, several parts look familiar, but the combination of all.... a "Wolpertinger"?

Yes, it is a chimera of several species, not all of them birds! I knew I couldn't fool you guys.

[AnimalToyForum]

So we have a Savannah cat, plum headed parakeet, European hedgehog, pygmy mouse, fly agaric mushroom and I'm not too sure about the fish. Now that bird... this is tricky, it looks like a menagerie of different birds created into one, I don't know 

Green=correct
Red=wrong (or maybe you are correct but using a different common name)

[AnimalToyForum]

Oops I forgot the other photo, fire salamander, grass snake, spiny lobster, edible crab, African bullfrog, common razor, common limpet, cowry shell, fool gold or iron pyrite, quartz and the rest I don't know

All correct, although even I'm not sure what species the lobster is!

[Isidro]

So we have a Savannah cat, plum headed parakeet, European hedgehog, pygmy mouse, fly agaric mushroom and I'm not too sure about the fish. Now that bird... this is tricky, it looks like a menagerie of different birds created into one, I don't know 

I didn't knew that the serval can be called "Savannah cat". never head it.
From memory I can't distinguish between plum-headed and blossom-headed parakeets.
The "pygmy mouse" is very clearly a vole, but I don't know which one.
The fish is a thicklip mullet.
You got correct the hedgehog and fly agaric of course.
The bird looks like more advanced than dromeosaurids and even than archaeopterygids. I have no idea. Maybe enantiornithid??? The feathers used for the tail are from domestic turkey.

[Isidro]

Oops I forgot the other photo, fire salamander, grass snake, spiny lobster, edible crab, African bullfrog, common razor, common limpet, cowry shell, fool gold or iron pyrite, quartz and the rest I don't know

Of course you got correctly all the easy ones. For the difficult ones I also can't pronounce well. And for the minerals I would have been unable to tell, so you won me in these In blue, the names you mentioned.

Left panel, top to bottom:
Coral (no idea of which but it could be an Acroporidae??)
Mitra sp. (Mitra mitra?)
Section of a tiger cowry (Cypraea tigris) shell
Cancer pagurus (edible crab)
a chiton (Polyplacophora) but no idea of even the Order

Right panel, top to bottom:
African bullfrog (Pyxicephalus adspersus)
Trochus sp. (niloticus?)
Fire salamander, Salamandra salamandra
Charonia tritonis
Tree snail, Polymita picta maybe?
another terrestrial snail, no idea of which, maybe an Helicarionidae or similar
Spiny lobster (Panulirus sp) but no idea of which one
spiny oyster, Spondylus sp, no idea of which one
tricky one the starfish, maybe Solaster endeca?
a big freshwater mussel (Unionidae) but no idea of which one. By greenish tinge I would say Unio sp, but looks like big for this genus, more Anodonta-sized
A fairly small horseshoe crab, I will suppose Limulus polyphemus tough I can't rule out the other 3 species
Lambis lambis
common razor Ensis ensis
Murex sp. No idea of the species. Looks like it's not M. pecten.
Another completely unknown coral

Bottom shelf, left to right:
Mineral that looks like pyrite but I'm not knowlegdeable about this matter
Common? limpet, Patella sp. (vulgata? there are many nearly identical common species in European shores...)
Mineral that looks like quartz but I'm not knowlegdeable about this matter
Sea acorns, no idea of even the family but probably Balanidae
Grass snake, Natrix natrix

[Advicot]

The bird seems to have the beak of a razorbill, tail feathers of a red bourbon turkey, feet of a turkey? painted blue, and the rest of its plumage is a mystery

I did think a serval but it just looked a little chubby 

P.S I am very much enjoying these ID games

[Advicot]

If I was to name this bird I'd name it a Bourbon Champacla 

And it looks like a South East Asian or South American ground bird

[AnimalToyForum]

The bird seems to have the beak of a razorbill, tail feathers of a red bourbon turkey, feet of a turkey? painted blue, and the rest of its plumage is a mystery

I did think a serval but it just looked a little chubby 

P.S I am very much enjoying these ID games

Serval is correct for the cat. At least, that's what the label says!

Too many other IDs to comment on just now, but I will sooner or later. The display was to introduce one of the key themes in the refurbished museum, diversity of nature. A second display will introduce a different theme, diversity of collections. This could be more tricky, but have a go anyway!

[Isidro]

It would help a lot if you could put the images in high resolution. Many of the think are unidentifiable just by lack of definition.

First photo:

Left: skull roof and horns of Impala (Aepyceros melampus), skull of a sawfish (Pristis sp) but no idea of which one, a blue handle of a door?, skull of common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), and the rest of skulls I'm unable to identify down to order level at best, except obviously the human one at bottom right. (The one left to the warthog is an echidna one?)
Right: frog skeleton, bird (pigeon???) skeleton, pterosaur cast, butterfly frame including: Papilio demoleus, Parantica sp, Parides sp, Charaxes sp, Doxocopa? sp, no idea, Delias sp, Troides sp, no idea, and the six buttefrlies at bottom no idea of none of them except the Phoebis in the bottom left corner. I probably would be able to track down to species on various butterflies if I search, but I think is unfair if I don't reply just from memory. In the lower frame, extremely imprecise IDs: scorpion, two tarantulas, horned lizard (Phrynosoma sp), and Scolopendra sp.


Second photo:
Left panel: Three preserved things that is not possible to ID due to lack of definition/small photo size. Middle one looks like an anuran of some sort and right one some kind of lizard.
Series of small bottles impossible to ID. They could be from mineral powder to small seashells.
Human heart model, cameo of Cassis (madagascariensis???), a rock I'm unable to tell (agatha?), cameo/section of tiger cowry (Cypraea tigris)
Right panel: two goniatitids?, fossils too small for ID at this pic size, herbarium for some poppies (Papaver sp.) (finally a plant!!! very neglected group in your mollusk-biased panels hahahaha), a fossil nautiloid section, fossil fish (no idea of which), merlin? (Falco columbarius), and a collection of bird eggs.

[Isidro]

P. D. the bill of the dinosaur/primitive bird looks like more based on a penguin (Spheniscus) than on a razorbill one, but probably is just made of plastic/resin and just painted to resemble one.

[AnimalToyForum]

It would help a lot if you could put the images in high resolution. Many of the think are unidentifiable just by lack of definition.

First photo:

Left: skull roof and horns of Impala (Aepyceros melampus), skull of a sawfish (Pristis sp) but no idea of which one, a blue handle of a door?, skull of common warthog (Phacochoerus africanus), and the rest of skulls I'm unable to identify down to order level at best, except obviously the human one at bottom right. (The one left to the warthog is an echidna one?)
Right: frog skeleton, bird (pigeon???) skeleton, pterosaur cast, butterfly frame including: Papilio demoleus, Parantica sp, Parides sp, Charaxes sp, Doxocopa? sp, no idea, Delias sp, Troides sp, no idea, and the six buttefrlies at bottom no idea of none of them except the Phoebis in the bottom left corner. I probably would be able to track down to species on various butterflies if I search, but I think is unfair if I don't reply just from memory. In the lower frame, extremely imprecise IDs: scorpion, two tarantulas, horned lizard (Phrynosoma sp), and Scolopendra sp.


Second photo:
Left panel: Three preserved things that is not possible to ID due to lack of definition/small photo size. Middle one looks like an anuran of some sort and right one some kind of lizard.
Series of small bottles impossible to ID. They could be from mineral powder to small seashells.
Human heart model, cameo of Cassis (madagascariensis???), a rock I'm unable to tell (agatha?), cameo/section of tiger cowry (Cypraea tigris)
Right panel: two goniatitids?, fossils too small for ID at this pic size, herbarium for some poppies (Papaver sp.) (finally a plant!!! very neglected group in your mollusk-biased panels hahahaha), a fossil nautiloid section, fossil fish (no idea of which), merlin? (Falco columbarius), and a collection of bird eggs.

You did very well considering how bad the photo is! Correct except: The door handle is just a clamp holding the display in place - this is just a test arrangement before we install them in the case. It is not a human skull, and it is not a merlin skin, not even a bird of prey.

[Isidro]

Ahhh, I tought that the blue thing was a misplaced door handle by some obscure reason. Now I can understand.
What kills me is that you says this is not an human skull. Clearly not from gorilla nor chimpanzee..  The only thing it could be other than modern human is one of the most modern extinct relatives of human, neanderthal? but these I considere as humans too.


But now... I compare the size of this skull and its FAIRLY small for an human skull, when compared with warthog skull, birdwing butterfly or horned lizard for example. So it must be a small monkey but with a skull that resembles atonishingly an human skull, much more than great ape skull does.... Now I'm really intringued.

The bird skin could be a nightjar? It was my second option but I tought that the bill was too curved for a nightjar so I said merlin. Oh, wait... this small black hook is not the bill, but a loose bunch of throat feathers, and the bill is the more whitish thing? Then is a cuckoo!!!!