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This week I have a new specimen (well, specimens) to the Dead Zoo for you to have a go at identifying: Image taken by Jamie Maxwell, 2025 Any idea what these little critters could be? I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Last week I gave you this skull from the collections of the Dead Zoo to have a go at identifying: Bird skull identification can take a bit of work, until you get your eye in on things like the bill morphology (especially without the clues provided by the keratin sheath). Resources like the excellent Skullsite.com certainly help a lot, by providing a huge range of images of different species for comparison, and with tools to help narrow down options based on…

Keeper of Ireland’s Natural History Museum, Paolo Viscardi talks weird collections, ‘sexy’ science and the role of museums in a biodiversity crisis.

For this week's mystery object, I have a skull from the collections of the Dead Zoo to test your identification skills: I look forward to hearing what you think it might be. Have fun with it!

Last week I gave you this mystery mandible to help me identify: It was found in a box of mixed shells and bony fragments, with no label, and nothing to offer a clue to its origin. This is very unusual, since these sorts of boxes of miscellany were mainly addressed years ago, but this one was well tucked away and somehow escaped being dealt with.

This week I have a genuine mystery object for you, found in an unmarked box in the depths of the Dead Zoo: It's not too tricky, but hopefully it'll prove interesting to work out. Have fun!

Last week I presented this mystery bone from the Words on the Wave exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street: The bone is over a thousand years old, so it's unsurprising that a few of the processes that could be useful for identification have been worn down a little: That said, there was plenty of information remaining to allow several of you to identify the animal, bone type and side of the animal this is from.

This week I have another bony mystery object for you: This one is currently on display in the beautiful Words on the Wave exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street, but the focus is on the inscription on the bone, rather than the species the bone came from: So, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what this is? Have fun with it!

Last week I had a genuine mystery object for you to identify that was freshly dug out of the ground: While there were a few suggestions of baked goods on social media, plenty of you spotted what it actually is - with a nod to Adam Yates who was first with the correct identification. The side view is probably the most useful for setting context, as it shows the smooth curve of the head of an articular surface, with an adjacent tuberosity (or sticky-up-bit, if you prefer):

This week's mystery object is a return to bony form, with a genuine mystery object dug straight out of the ground: Any idea what this could be? I'm keen to hear your thoughts in the comments below - I hope you have fun with it!

Last week I gave you this colourful chap to have a go at identifying: As I mentioned in the previous mystery object answer, parrots can be hard to identify due to the large number of species globally. However, this time the specimen posed no problems for people to identify - perhaps unsurprisingly, given its importance. Chris Jarvis was first in the door with the correct answer - a nice cryptic clue using the…

The last mystery object proved to be quite difficult, but I gave some pointers on helping with parrot identification, and I thought it might be fun to try another Psittaciform this week: I suspect this might prove to be a bit of an easier bird to identify, so I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what it might be. Have fun!

Last week I gave you a bit of tricky mystery object in the form of this colourful character: Obviously it's a parrot of some sort, but there are LOTS of parrots. With over 400 species to choose from, identifying one from a single image is not easy at all. Generally when it comes to parrot identification it's very useful to know where it came from, and without that information this mystery is made even harder - but if I'd provided the locality it would have been way too easy!

The New Dead Zoo Lab has officially opened at The National Museum at Collins Barracks

This week I have a colourful character for you to have a go at identifying: The Order will be easy to figure out, but I'd be keen to see how many of you can work out the species. I hope you have fun with this challenge!

Last week I gave you this mystery object to have a go at identifying: This one is fairly straightforward to get to the superfamily level - it's one of the Sea Turtles (the Chelonioidea). However, despite there only being seven species alive today, their skulls can take a bit of careful observation to distinguish the diagnostic features that offer the clues to a species level identification.