That skull, though!

 If you misspent your youth (and/or your adulthood) hanging around natural history museums, you've seen a good number of skulls. You've almost certainly seen a cast of a T. Rex skull, probably the skull of an Allosaurus as well; you may have seen the skull of my favourite dino, Stegosaurus, or the pointy Triceratops.  Diplodocus had peggy teeth, and hippos have scary teeth in a big jaw. Sabretooth cats were, well, scarytooth cats, and Megalodon teeth are all the more impressive when the teeth of a great white shark are displayed next to them.  Elephant skulls are simply ‘wow’.

This, though, is the only skull so far that has made my partner exclaim “What the hell is that??” when he’s seen the photo on my monitor.  Just look at that jaw mechanism, the pointy head, the spiky bones at the base of the skull.  Do first impressions tell the whole story, though?  What is this, and where does it, or did it, fit into its ecosystem?

Reader, this is the skull of a fish - and fish are just weird.  They're weirder still when you're looking at their sekletons.  Sole look as though they've shoved their heads through their own ribcages.  Sharks don't bother with a proper skeleton, they just use gristle.  Sunfish skeletons look like they were designed by Salvador Dalí.  This one, though? Please allow me to introduce you to Gadus morhua, more commonly known as… Cod.  Yes, cod, as in your traditional fish supper.  Humble to us, but the bane of prey species including other bony fish, crabs, lobsters, squid, mussels and other molluscs, and worms. Their skulls, though!