It's a Skull, But What Kind?

Workers unearth unusual skull in North Dallas

By SCOTT GORDON

Updated 2:42 AM CDT, Sat, May 9, 2009

A plumber working on a construction project outside a North Dallas school unearthed a mysterious skull.

“We all know it’s a primate,” said David Evans, 25, of Alvarado. “We just don’t know which kind.”

The skull was buried about five feet underground, he said. It’s six inches from front to back and two inches wide.

Most of the teeth, including one-inch canines, are intact.

Evans said the skull was discovered last week at the St. Alcuin Montessori School near Churchill Way and Preston Road.

A noted anthropologist for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s office, Dr. Dana Austin, viewed photographs of the skull and said it was definitely an “old-world primate,” possibly a monkey or chimp.

She said it was impossible to determine from the photos the age of the skull.

Evans, who talked to other experts, said he believes it may be a baboon.

"From everybody at UTA and everybody I've been talking to, (it’s) possibly a baboon,” he said. “But how it got to 635, right there at Churchill and Preston, I have no idea."

Evans and other workers also found a small bone nearby, apparently from the same animal.

"It appears to be part of a femur or hip,” he said.

Evans plans to sell the skull if someone offers him a good price, but also may keep it as a conversation piece.

"If somebody comes over, that's an hour right there,” he said laughing.

See pictures and video at: http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Its-a-Skull-But-What-Kind.html