Can you Identify this skull?

My brother, while on holiday in Scotland (he was staying on an island), found this skull, which I think he a cat, a big cat like a lynx type of thing. But I've looked through loads of pictures of big cat skulls and can't find anything that looks like this. I thought it could be a seal too, but the back teeth are completely wrong. Here's a picture…
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looks a bit like the top skull of a scottish wildcat skull
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steve

Thanks Steve, although this thing's head is a lot longer isn't it. I was wondering whether is was a seal after all, maybe a Ringed seal, but the front teeth are so large. My brother brought the teeth back, so I could show the size.

For some reason, I couldn't see any picture.

Lasersword1973 wrote:

For some reason, I couldn't see any picture.

Can you see it now Ron? I reloaded it.

My first thought was that is a skull of the Scottish/European wild cat too.
Then the size should be around the 12-15 cm mark i think.
It is definatly feline, so no seal or so.
It was in ancient times, that the last lynxes lived in Britain.

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

My first thought was that is a skull of the Scottish/European wild cat too.
Then the size should be around the 12-15 cm mark i think.
It is definatly feline, so no seal or so.
It was in ancient times, that the last lynxes lived in Britain.

Yes, I know it’s not a Lynx, the front teeth are too short for one of them.
The animal hasn't long died as there were still fleshy parts on the skull. I thought it was feline the second I saw it too, but look at the eye sockets on the one my brother found, they are smooth and have no ridge like that which is on all felines, in the pic below. Also just above the front big teeth the bone curves inwards on the one my brother found, whereas on a feline the bone curves out. Don't know if you see what I mean. I’ve tried to show on the pic with the arrows.
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Well, you could be right Harriet, if you look at those points you metnioned.
But there are not many predatory animals in Britain with a set of teeth like that, and then the skull in this size.
Actually i had a problem with the elongated shape of the skull...
A badger went through my mind too, but i don't know if they have teeth like that.
When you look at those front canines, you can see that they are made to cut and rip of meat of the victim.
Maybe you could ask a local biologist to see if this person could say more about the skull...
When i think about it, i will try to find more info on this the coming week.

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Well, you could be right Harriet, if you look at those points you metnioned.
But there are not many predatory animals in Britain with a set of teeth like that, and then the skull in this size.
Actually i had a problem with the elongated shape of the skull...
A badger went through my mind too, but i don't know if they have teeth like that.
When you look at those front canines, you can see that they are made to cut and rip of meat of the victim.
Maybe you could ask a local biologist to see if this person could say more about the skull...
When i think about it, i will try to find more info on this the coming week.

yes I would take it to a biologist if I could, I wonder if there are some guys or site about these things on the internet that could help...
Thanks Willy! It's logical for it to be a seal being right by the sea and with all those colonies up there of ringed, grey and some bearded seals. But it's those big teeth at the front that are strange! No, couldn't be a badger, the skull was too big and teeth too large, but I did think it might be that and looked up some skulls.
My brother found the skull and a spine a few yards from the beach shore, I’ll take a picture of the teeth so you can see the shapes and how big they really are. He didn’t bring the skull home because, as I said, it was fleshy still and probably stank. There was a lower jaw too, but as soon as he picked it up it fell to pieces. So he didn’t bother taking a picture.

I did some research on this, and i think you are right that it must be a skull of a seal-species, although the canines are a little bit different, but that can be mistaken easily.
I found these pics to compare.

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The last one, is from a crab-eater seal.

Thanks Willy for your research! Yes it must have been a seal, just with big teeth The first skull was the most like it, don't you think? What kind is that?

I think it was a common seal...
But maybe, maybe this skull is from a pre/ancestor, so a fossil actually, you never know what the earth brings up sometimes.
But i would go to an expert anyway, if you really wan to know for sure...