THE
M
Dr. Tom Cooley
Rose
Dear Tom,
We
examined the felid
skull this morning and agree that it is a
cougar, Puma concolor We compared it to
western and Central
The
animal appears to have been an adult, neither
notably old nor young. The suture between basioccipital
and basisphenoid is fused, for example, which would not be
the case if the animal were young. That the animal was adult is also suggested
by the fact that the skull is rather
large, at least compared to most of
the 10 or so specimens to which we compared it.
Given
the animal's apparent age, we were surprised at how unworn the animal's cheekteeth were, especially the upper carnmassials
and P3's. This suggests to us (but certainly does not prove) that the animal
may have been an escaped captive; wild individuals of similar age in the UMMZ and MSUM collections generally have teeth that are more worn.
Because
the possibility remains that this was a
wild animal, we think it is essential that
the specimen end up in a scientific collection
in Michigan, where it will he available for future study and provide a permanent
record of the species not become part of someone's private collection.
Sincerely
yours, -
Barbara
L. Lundrigan
Curator
of Mammals and Birds
Philip
Myers
University
of