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[MUSIC PLAYING] SERENA BRADY: Hi, I'm Serena. And I'm really interested in animal skulls. And when I was younger, I was walking through the woods. And I remember stumbling upon a skull. And I had no idea what it was.
So I brought it home. And my mom and I looked through a book, and we found out that it was a fox skull. And I'm going to tell you guys today how I determined that it was a fox skull.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, man, I'm so excited. It's such a beautiful day outside.
SERENA BRADY: It is.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: A nice walk in the woods, I wonder if we'll find anything today.
SERENA BRADY: You know there's always a chance that we'll find something.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Let's see if we can find something.
SERENA BRADY: Yes.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: All right, come on, Serena.
SERENA BRADY: All right, awesome. Whoa, look at that.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, my god, look at that. It looks like a skull.
SERENA BRADY: I think it is.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, man, what is it?
SERENA BRADY: Oh, I don't know. Let's see if we can figure this out. OK, so the eyes are on the sides of the head.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: So these are the eyes?
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, yeah, those are the orbits. So that must mean it's a prey species, because it has to have better peripheral vision. So it needs to be able to see predators sneaking up on it.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: So having the eyes like this.
SERENA BRADY: Exactly, yeah. All right, so then what else? Let's look at the teeth. All right.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Ew, they're so weirdly shaped.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, they're kind of flat, so that must mean that they're more for grinding. The molars and the premolars are more flat.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, there's no sharp teeth though.
SERENA BRADY: Right, no canines. Good, yeah, that's a really good observation. There's no canines. And the incisors are really tiny. So that must mean it's an herbivore, because it has no canine teeth. All right, and then you want to know if it had two legs or four.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: How can you tell that from the skull?
SERENA BRADY: OK, so it's really cool. This is the foramen magnum. And it's where the spine meets the skull. And so if you simply place your finger in it, you can see that it was more horizontal instead of like us, which is we walk like this.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Just like up and down?
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, so this animal had to have four legs.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, cool.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Well, if it was found around here, maybe it lived around here too. What could it possibly be?
SERENA BRADY: I think it might be a deer.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: A deer-- ah, dear are so awesome.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: OK, so there are these deer that live outside my apartment. And they got these nice long legs that kind of like go on forever. They only got two toes. I'm like, how can you stand on two toes? Well, then you watch them run, and you realize that it makes them really fast because they've got these long legs that keep going. And they have this huge stride. They're really, really cool and very graceful.
SERENA BRADY: Awesome. That is really neat. We've just found a deer skull.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Ah, yeah.
SERENA BRADY: So cool. Let's put it back.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Let somebody else find it.
SERENA BRADY: Exactly. Oh, my gosh, another one.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, my god.
SERENA BRADY: We've stumbled upon a graveyard.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Ew, it has huge yellow teeth, gross.
SERENA BRADY: Oh, wow.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: What is that?
SERENA BRADY: Look at the incisors on this thing.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, my god, they're like two inches long.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah. Let's look at the teeth again. All right, so these are really flat. So it must have been a herbivore.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Whoa.
SERENA BRADY: Right, because really flat teeth, really sharp incisors, no canines. It's a pretty big skull too.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Look at that. I mean, OK, so something that has a really long front teeth-- what kind of things have really long front teeth? Hm.
SERENA BRADY: Well, rodents.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Rodents definitely do.
SERENA BRADY: I don't think this is a--
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It's a huge rodent though.
SERENA BRADY: I don't think this is a mouse. That would be a big mouse.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Well, What else can we learn about it though?
SERENA BRADY: All right, well, the eyes--
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: The eyes are on the top of the head?
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, weird. That's definitely different than the other herbivore we looked at, the dear.
SERENA BRADY: Right, right. But it's still not completely in the front of the skull.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah.
SERENA BRADY: So it's still a prey species. And let's look at the foreman magnum. So that's the hole in the back of the skull. It has room for bending.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Ooh.
SERENA BRADY: So that's different. Huh.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: OK, well, if it's this large, these are rodents that are very large that could possibly live in this area-- definitely not a rat or mouse, so definitely not a rat.
SERENA BRADY: What about a beaver?
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Beaver, that would fit-- eyes on the top of the head, right?
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: To be able to see when it's swimming.
SERENA BRADY: The teeth keep growing.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: The teeth keep growing. He's got to cut down trees with those things.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It makes a lot of sense. And beavers also swim, which would make sense with eyes on the top of the head so they can see when they're underwater. They also have these feet that have webbing in between them, so they can push, right?
SERENA BRADY: Cool.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, and long flat tails so they can propel themselves through the water. They're really awesome.
SERENA BRADY: That's awesome.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: And one of the few swimming mammals.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That's pretty cool.
SERENA BRADY: That is really cool. We're finding so many skulls. This is so cool.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: I know. What?
SERENA BRADY: Speak of the devil.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Wow, there's another one. Oh, my god, is this like an animal graveyard or something?
SERENA BRADY: I think it is. This is so neat.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, this one's really different.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, it is.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Ew, look at those teeth. Man, they're huge and pointy. We got something new here.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah. This is really a large skull. Jeez, all right, so it has really sharp canines. That is really sharp.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: All of the teeth.
SERENA BRADY: Molars, too. Ooh, yeah, this is cool. So it has to be a carnivore because it has huge canines.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: All right. What else do we know about it? It's got pointy teeth, so it's a carnivore.
SERENA BRADY: Eyes would be here.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, wow, the eyes are on the front this time.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It's definitely different. It's definitely got to be a predator of some sort.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, yep, definitely a predator. And let's see where the hole in the foramen magnum is. All right, this has four legs, so a predator with four legs.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: And eyes in the front.
SERENA BRADY: That eats meat.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That eats meat.
SERENA BRADY: It's rather big too.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, I'm trying to think of anything around here that would be that big. Because, I mean, a fox isn't that big.
SERENA BRADY: No, a fox is smaller.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Would a coyote be that big?
SERENA BRADY: A coyote's smaller too.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Well, I mean, the only thing that's related to that would be a wolf, but they're not around here anymore. Maybe this is a really old skull.
SERENA BRADY: I think it could be a really old skull.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That's really, really cool.
SERENA BRADY: Because wolves were around here.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That's true. Their range did come all the way out here.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah. This is really neat.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, and wolves also do a lot of running. They can go days just doing this little lope, because like a deer, they have long legs. But instead of just two toes, they have five toes. They plant their foot down like this. And so it really distributes their weight a lot so they don't get tired as easily. So they can go for hours and hours of running without getting tired.
SERENA BRADY: Cool.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah.
SERENA BRADY: It probably helps them with hunting too.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, yeah, and their feet also let them switch directions really quickly. Because when you put your feet down, you can kind of push off of one edge. Deer can't do that. A deer's only got two toes to push off of. He can't do that.
SERENA BRADY: That's so cool.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, wolves are so awesome.
SERENA BRADY: Let's see if we see anything else.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That one? Whoa.
SERENA BRADY: Cool. This is a huge skull. What does it look like?
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It's got a really flat face.
SERENA BRADY: It does.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It's not like a dog at all.
SERENA BRADY: No.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: But it's get those pointy teeth, those really long pointy teeth. Look at that.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, the canines, really large. And the eyes are the front.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: And the eyes are in the front. It's got a huge nose.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: What about that little thing in the back? What's it called again?
SERENA BRADY: Foramen magnum.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Foramen magnum, that hole. So it goes--
SERENA BRADY: Horizontally. It has four legs.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Four legs, it's got a short face and pointy teeth.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Hm.
SERENA BRADY: It kind of looks like my house cat. But my house cat is not this big.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, OK, all right, well, let's see. Maybe it's related to a house cat. What's related to a house cat that lives around here? We've got things like mountain lions.
SERENA BRADY: Mountain lions.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, those are huge. Those are like the size of dogs.
SERENA BRADY: They are really big. I think this is a mountain lion.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, yeah.
SERENA BRADY: It's insane.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, and mountain lions and wolves have a lot of similar features with their legs and stuff, because they both have five toes. And they kind of run the same. But mountain lions have a lot more power in them versus wolves, which have a lot more agility and stuff. It's really cool.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, right. Neat. Victoria, look. There's another one.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, my god, another one.
SERENA BRADY: Oh, cool. Oh, wow, so this is similar but different. See? All right, so it has canines.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: All right, so it's got to eat meat, right?
SERENA BRADY: Possibly. Well, yes, it will eat meat, because canines are used to pierce and hold the prey. But let's look more. Oh, wow.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, but these teeth aren't sharp like the wolf.
SERENA BRADY: No, they're not. The molars aren't sharp at all. They're more flat.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Well, how is that possible? How could it have sharp teeth in the front and flat ones in the back?
SERENA BRADY: It's an omnivore.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: What does that mean?
SERENA BRADY: OK so omnivores eat both meat and plants. So they're going to have a combination of teeth.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: You mean like us? Because I eat meat and plants.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Also, these are really small canines.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, our canines have receded. But yeah, so they have all four types of teeth. They still have the incisors, the canines, the pre-molars, and the molars. But these are a lot more flat compared to what we saw with the coyote where everything is sharp. So this is really cool. So this is an omnivore, the first omnivore we've found. This is neat.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: OK, and its eyes, where are the eyes?
SERENA BRADY: The eyes are right here.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: So that's in the front, right?
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, kind of on the front and on the side.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: They're kind of on the top too.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, and it has a longer nose. So it has decent sense of smell. And then-- whoa, the foramen magnum's actually like more angled.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, so it doesn't just walk on four legs.
SERENA BRADY: Possibly. It must have some variation in the way it walks.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: OK, so it eats both meat and plants, eyes in the front.
SERENA BRADY: It needs to have flexibility.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: And flexibility, something that would be really important flexibility would be moving around from the ground to trees, right?
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, that would work.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That would be really important for that. So what are some ground to trees and eats meat and plants? Let's see.
SERENA BRADY: A opossum?
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It could be a opossum.
SERENA BRADY: I think it's a opossum.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That seems to make a lot of sense. And opossums are really cool, because they climb things. I mean, come on.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah. And the opossum has more-- like if you look at the skull, it just looks more-- Can't you just envision a opossum?
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, yeah, I see the opossum.
SERENA BRADY: I think it's a opossum.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: So it's on the ground and in the trees, which means it needs to be able to climb up the trees, right?
SERENA BRADY: Right.
SERENA BRADY: And opossums have claws in their hands so they can grip the branches. They also have a really long tail which helps them to balance when they're climbing up the trees. But they don't hang from them, right?
SERENA BRADY: Really? I thought they did.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Nope, that's an old wives' tale.
SERENA BRADY: Oh, OK.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It is not true. It's not strong enough to hold them up.
SERENA BRADY: Gotcha. That makes sense.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: But they use it to help them balance so they don't fall out of the trees.
SERENA BRADY: Right.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: But yeah, and they're also on the smaller side. You can see their skull is much smaller than anything else we've seen.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, but it's still pretty big.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Yeah, big in comparison to like a mouse.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, a mouse would be tiny.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: A mouse is really small.
SERENA BRADY: Oh, it's so nice out.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, yeah. Whoa. Oh, that was--
SERENA BRADY: I think so. I think we've hit the jackpot today.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: I really think so.
SERENA BRADY: Oh, this is heavy.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, that is a huge skull.
SERENA BRADY: It is. Whoa, oh, I'm going to break it. Wow.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Whoa, look at the size of those teeth.
SERENA BRADY: Those are huge canines.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Those are huge canines.
SERENA BRADY: Feel them. They're really smooth too.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Ooh, wow.
SERENA BRADY: That's awesome. And it's kind of a shorter face too, right?
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Oh, those teeth are flat in the back, man.
SERENA BRADY: All right, so it has the canine teeth, and it has flat molars.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: And it has flat molars. That means it eats both meat and plants, right?
SERENA BRADY: Right, omnivore.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Omnivore.
SERENA BRADY: This is a big omnivore.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: That is a very big omnivore. OK, well, what is so big that eats both meat and plants?
SERENA BRADY: And the eyes are kind of in the front.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: The eyes are in the front, which means it hunts.
SERENA BRADY: Right. It has to have at least good vision, good binocular vision.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: OK, what about that hole in the back, the foramen magnum? Oh, no.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It's a little broken.
SERENA BRADY: Hard to tell on that one.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Hm. Oh, well. Well, we can still be able to tell what it is.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, of course.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Something this big that eats both plants and animals and eyes in the front of the head, that's no wolf or coyote.
SERENA BRADY: No, those are carnivores.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: It's something else. What about aren't there bears that live around here?
SERENA BRADY: There are bears.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: What kind of bears live around here?
SERENA BRADY: Black bears, right?
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Is it only black bears? Yeah, oh, yeah, because Grizzlies are too big.
SERENA BRADY: Yeah, Grizzlies are really big.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: And they don't live around here.
SERENA BRADY: It's not a polar bear.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Definitely not a polar bear.
SERENA BRADY: No.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: All right, so it's a black bear. Oh, man.
SERENA BRADY: That's so cool.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Black bears hunt by running too, I think. But they're not quite as graceful as wolves.
SERENA BRADY: Right.
VICTORIA DICAMILLO: Their legs are a little bit shorter, and they have huge hands. Their hands are like the size of like my face at least. Maybe bigger than my face, maybe my whole skull, like just huge hands, and that helps them to carry their weight around because they're huge.
SERENA BRADY: Right.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Serina and Victoria take viewers through the process of identifying animal skulls found in the woods. You can discover an animal's role in the environment, figure out if it was a predator or prey species, and even the number of legs the animal had - from just the skull!
