Late Pleistocene canid... or just a stray dog??? Iscorama anamorphic
Taken with a Nikon D60, Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 lens fitted with an Iscorama anamorphic lens (1968 version), both focused at infinity, with the objective from a junk Soligor 90-180mm lens reverse mounted on the Isco, plus the objective from a junk 400mm Tele-Astranar lens reverse mounted on the Soligor. Lighting provided by a Nikon SB-18 Speedlight flashed through a frozen dinner bowl diffuser. Working distance = 2.5 inches, field width = 1.5 inches.
This is a close-up of the scalloped incisors of a skull (canid?) that I found at Anderson's Cove, Nova Scotia late in the summer of 1980. Two days of heavy rain and high wind gave way to a morning of bright sun and a southwesterly breeze, so I decided to hike out to the old logging community site at Eatonville, in what is now Cape Chignecto Provincial Park. In 1980 there were numerous trails for hiking but none of the development that came with the creation of the park several decades later. To avoid mosquitoes and black flies, I had parked by the bridge at Spicers Cove and hiked south along the base of the cliffs, passing through the small arch at Squally Point, stopping a short distance beyond the pinnacle at Anderson's Cove... about two miles in all. While seated on a log having lunch a few hundred yards south of the pinnacle, I heard the cracking of wood and some large stones tumbling somewhere behind me. What had occurred was a kind of "slow-motion" land-slip, a slumping of a water saturated area of the bluff about 40 yards wide, which spilled out onto the shore not quite to the high tide line, about 200 feet from the base of the bluff. Looking around the slide for any signs of old rubbish that might indicate the presence of antique bottles, I saw a dirty brownish white object peeking out of the mud. It was the back part of some kind of animal skull. There was no way that I could reach it because of the deep mud, which at that part of the slide was probably better than 6 feet deep. Trying to "fish" for it using sticks and broken branches only produced muddy clothes and hiking shoes... with the skull remaining unmoved, just out of reach. By then the sun was getting low and I had to return to the car. Before leaving for home ten days later, I returned to the spot with three lightweight mesh car seat mats and found the skull was still there, undisturbed except having been carried along by the slide's slow movement toward the water. By arranging the mats to support myself on top of the now much firmer mud and debris, I was able to carefully dig out the skull, which was in fairly good condition. The "Zygomatic Arch" just outside the left eye socket was smashed in and a piece missing, the break looking like a very old one. No other skeletal remains were found. The skull has been stained somewhat by long immersion in mud and clay, possibly in peat. If the creature had become trapped in a bog near the edge of the bluff, erosion could have eventually breached it, causing part of it to be carried down with the slide allowing the skull to become exposed. Fossils and ancient bones are often found in bogs or buried in glacial till. In many cases the bones have not begun to "mineralize", but have taken on a tint from being buried for thousands of years.
DSC-0323-WS
Late Pleistocene canid... or just a stray dog??? Iscorama anamorphic
Taken with a Nikon D60, Nikkor-H 85mm f/1.8 lens fitted with an Iscorama anamorphic lens (1968 version), both focused at infinity, with the objective from a junk Soligor 90-180mm lens reverse mounted on the Isco, plus the objective from a junk 400mm Tele-Astranar lens reverse mounted on the Soligor. Lighting provided by a Nikon SB-18 Speedlight flashed through a frozen dinner bowl diffuser. Working distance = 2.5 inches, field width = 1.5 inches.
This is a close-up of the scalloped incisors of a skull (canid?) that I found at Anderson's Cove, Nova Scotia late in the summer of 1980. Two days of heavy rain and high wind gave way to a morning of bright sun and a southwesterly breeze, so I decided to hike out to the old logging community site at Eatonville, in what is now Cape Chignecto Provincial Park. In 1980 there were numerous trails for hiking but none of the development that came with the creation of the park several decades later. To avoid mosquitoes and black flies, I had parked by the bridge at Spicers Cove and hiked south along the base of the cliffs, passing through the small arch at Squally Point, stopping a short distance beyond the pinnacle at Anderson's Cove... about two miles in all. While seated on a log having lunch a few hundred yards south of the pinnacle, I heard the cracking of wood and some large stones tumbling somewhere behind me. What had occurred was a kind of "slow-motion" land-slip, a slumping of a water saturated area of the bluff about 40 yards wide, which spilled out onto the shore not quite to the high tide line, about 200 feet from the base of the bluff. Looking around the slide for any signs of old rubbish that might indicate the presence of antique bottles, I saw a dirty brownish white object peeking out of the mud. It was the back part of some kind of animal skull. There was no way that I could reach it because of the deep mud, which at that part of the slide was probably better than 6 feet deep. Trying to "fish" for it using sticks and broken branches only produced muddy clothes and hiking shoes... with the skull remaining unmoved, just out of reach. By then the sun was getting low and I had to return to the car. Before leaving for home ten days later, I returned to the spot with three lightweight mesh car seat mats and found the skull was still there, undisturbed except having been carried along by the slide's slow movement toward the water. By arranging the mats to support myself on top of the now much firmer mud and debris, I was able to carefully dig out the skull, which was in fairly good condition. The "Zygomatic Arch" just outside the left eye socket was smashed in and a piece missing, the break looking like a very old one. No other skeletal remains were found. The skull has been stained somewhat by long immersion in mud and clay, possibly in peat. If the creature had become trapped in a bog near the edge of the bluff, erosion could have eventually breached it, causing part of it to be carried down with the slide allowing the skull to become exposed. Fossils and ancient bones are often found in bogs or buried in glacial till. In many cases the bones have not begun to "mineralize", but have taken on a tint from being buried for thousands of years.
DSC-0323-WS