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Macabre, but interesting: |
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Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181  View other posts by Vicar |
Posted: 19 Sep 2007 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 ?  Steve Langham - Chairman 
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG). |
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arvensis Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 No. of posts: 445 View other posts by arvensis |
Posted: 19 Sep 2007 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 Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Group. |
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snakey Member Joined: 14 Sep 2007 No. of posts: 30 View other posts by snakey |
Posted: 19 Sep 2007 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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tim hamlett Senior Member Joined: 17 Dec 2006 No. of posts: 572  View other posts by tim hamlett |
Posted: 19 Sep 2007 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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snakey Member Joined: 14 Sep 2007 No. of posts: 30 View other posts by snakey |
Posted: 20 Sep 2007 which species of lizard is the skull from tim, is it a native lizard? |
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tim hamlett Senior Member Joined: 17 Dec 2006 No. of posts: 572 View other posts by tim hamlett |
Posted: 20 Sep 2007 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 |
- Macabre, but interesting |
