Common Murre Skull Replica

$91.00

The Common Murre is native to the Northern Atlantic & the North American Pacific coast. Apart from the breeding season, this pelagic species spends much of its life at sea. The Common Murre nests in large colonies on rocky offshore.

Description

Common Murre Skull Replica measures 4.4 inches. Common Murre Skull Replica is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA. Our precise skull can be used as a teaching tool, museum skull exhibit, home décor skull, or office décor skull.

The Common Murre, Common Guillemot or Uria aalge is a large auk. It is also known as the thin-billed murre in North America.

It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands.

Common murres or Uria aalge have fast direct flight but are not very agile. They are more manoeuvrable underwater, typically diving to depths of 98–197 ft. Depths of up to 590 ft. have been recorded.

Common murres or Uria aalge breed in colonies at high densities. Nesting pairs may be in bodily contact with their neighbors. They do not make a nest. Their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.

Eggs hatch after about 30 days incubation. The chick is born downy and can regulate its body temperature after 10 days.

Some 20 days after hatching the chick leaves its nesting ledge and heads for the sea, unable to fly, but gliding for some distance with fluttering wings, accompanied by its male parent. Chicks are capable of diving as soon as they hit the water. The female stays at the nest site for some 14 days after the chick has left.

Both male and female common murres or Uria aalge moult after breeding and become flightless for 1 to 2 months. In some populations they occasionally return to the nest site throughout the winter. Common murres or Uria aalge adults reduce the time that they spend flying during the winter and are able to forage nocturnally.

The Common murre or Uria aalge is a pursuit diver that forages for food by swimming underwater using its wings for propulsion.

Dives usually last less than one minute, but they swim underwater for distances of over 98 ft. on a regular basis.

The Common murre eats polar cod, capelin, sand lances, sprats, sandeels, atlantic cod, atlantic herring, capelin, sand lances,molluscs, marine worms, squid, and crustaceans such as amphipods.

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Additional information

Weight 3 lbs
Dimensions 4.4 in
Common Murre Facts

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Alcidae
Genus: Uria
Species: U. aalge
Binomial name: Uria aalge
Conservation status: Least concern