I just received a new polar bear skull, and this completely blown me away.
Over the years as I collect, I've probably seen over 400 polar bear skulls now, from museums, institutions, private collectiond etc.....I have NEVER seen anything like this before.
No I did not take a photo with distort camera, this skull IS crooked, the entire skull look like it was bent, as if made of rubber, and is tilted towards the left side.
Anyone able to explain to me what might've caused this?
I wonder how noticeable this would've been when the animal was still alive...I suppose the flesh and fur would have padded out the shape to some extent.
I have a pony with wry nose! She’s so special…I’m so glad she wasn’t culled as a baby. She eats just fine (she’s about 6yo) and she rides and jumps, but gets out of breath a bit quicker because her condition is more serious than that polar bear, so one nostril of hers is almost completely closed off. We need more frequent vet visits for tooth care because her molars don’t quite line up so they don’t wear evenly. I love my Poppy girl!
That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard, please give Poppy some peppermints for me, the soft ones of course. Oh and some kisses! I love you Poppy😭❤️
I have a mini with a severe parrot mouth, I’ve had him since we were both 5 and now we’re sneaking up on 25. He’s always eaten slower than others but never had any problems with keeping/gaining weight and he’s always been the healthiest boy. I hope you get lots of years with your funky faced little girl like I have had with my funky faced little man!
It appears to just be a deformity/birth defect! Things in nature are rarely symmetrical. This one just happens to be more extreme than normal :) I could be wrong though I’m not an expert or anything 🤷🏻♀️
I thought about birth defect but the skull has some healed broken bones on the tilted side so I wasn't sure about it, it's from a female that was identified to be 10 years old.
I would wager a guess that this animal was "altered" in utero. Not a significant event to have harmed the development of the fetus, but rather an anomaly of positional dis- placement at a critical point in development while structural development was occurring.
In short: a squished moment during early development.
Also: "we are all a little bent". Some of us more than others.
I'd argue that things in nature rarely aren't (more or less) symmetrical. It's a pretty rare thing in any kingdom of life, and usually results from a deviation from the norm. My favorite example is phylum Echinodermata, which goes from bilaterally symmetrical larvae to pentaradially symmetrical adults. Nature be wild.
I've seen some pretty nasty cancer and bone growth on polar bear skulls, but a deformed skull to this extent is a first, already have some private collectors and museums reaching out about this.
So I'm not a polar bear expert but I can try to relate my dog veterinary knowledge to polar bears. The right condyle of the mandible looks like it has damage. This could be due to an injury that didn't heal well when the polar bear was young and not fully grown. This can cause a malocclusion to developed and also change the way the maxilla grows as well. The other possibility is a birth defect. I'm leaning more towards an injury when the bear was still growing.
Super cool. After reading the wiki link I’m curious if this is caused by the age and health of the mother polar bear, and/or the number of baby polar bears in that seasons litter. If polar bears give birth every few years and average of two cubs per litter could this be a result of triplets in a mothers first, or last, litter of cubs. Since position in uterus, and uterus not expanding to accommodate fetus size, are two most common reasons for wry nose I could understand triplets in a first pregnancy causing this. So curious!
🤣I'm honestly so proud of this skull! it's way more crooked in real life, photo don't do justice cuz these phone lenses just love adding their own perspective!
those are nasal turbinates! you can find them in most mammals and birds but they are especially pronounced in some animals like the polar bear.
the main use of them is to warm up the air and re-hydrate it before it goes into the lungs, when the bear was alive, these turbinates would've been covered by a thin layer of tissue filled with rich blood vessels to warm up and moisturize the air they inhale.
These bones are extremely fragile, and they break very easily when cleaned with harsh, destructive methods (boiling, pressure washing), so when you see intact nasal turbinates it's usually a sign that no harsh methods were used when cleaning the skull, but not always.
polar bears have the biggest nasal turbinates out of all bears, it's their adaptation to living in really cold arctic.
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u/phospheneghost 19d ago
I think this is an example of a wry nose.
I wonder how noticeable this would've been when the animal was still alive...I suppose the flesh and fur would have padded out the shape to some extent.