Osteology is Awesomology

[Trace]

My wife calls me a hobby-whore because I get into something and eventually stop caring about it. I think this new interest should keep me hooked for awhile. I've been collecting, striping and cleaning skulls of different species. Here is the setup:

This is the room we keep our skulls in while they're getting "processed" it has its own air handling system to contain the stench

Here are my employees, these are Dermestid beetles and they clean every scrap of hair and tissue off the bones.

Here are a few of my most recent additions. Can you name the species?

1. this is an easy one

2. a little bit tougher

3. a lot harder, check out the "cheeks" and dentation

4. here is a bird, do you know what kind?

5. and a mammal, this is one of my favorites

6. let's see what's cooking now!!

After the flesh has been stripped I soak the bones in a cleaning agent for a day or so which makes them museum quality. Pretty cool, huh?

 

[Kirk]

The bird skull looks like that of a spoon bill. While living in Galveston TX, I liked watching the Rosette spoon bills in the salt marshes.

 

[skippy]

looked like a

beardie

caiman of some kind

heloderma of some kind

+1 on the spoonbill

and a skunk maybe?

ooooooh am i right?

 

[Trace]

It's not a bearded, look at the snout and jaw. However, that is a dwarf caiman, palpebrosus, and a spoonbill. Not a Heloderm, or a skunk though.

 

[skippy]

is #3 a monkey tailed skink then?

 

[Ritzman]

#1 is a snapper?

#6 is clearly a human.

 

[Kirk]

#6 is clearly a human.

And the legal ramifications would be rather staggering! #6 looks like a primate of some ilk.

 

[pandinus]

common snapper
caiman
blue tounge skink
rosette spoonbill
cat?
chimp?



John
BTW that last one creeps me the hell out

 

[Trace]

Good guesses! They're
1 common snapper
2 dwarf caiman
3 prehensie tailed skink
4 spoonbill
5 giant fruit bat
6 macaque

 

[Warren Bautista]

Wow, I can't imagine the stench! How do you acquire the heads of the animals, though?

 

[Trace]

The stench isn't too bad, as long as you clean as much of the flesh off the animal before you put it in with the Dermestids. This is all at a zoo I work at, the animals die of natural causes and all the skulls are kept on grounds for educational purposes.

 

[Exo]

Reminds me of the movie ''predator''.

 

[pavel]

Excellant work, Trace! (Rather surprised though that no one has started any puns yet ...... so I guess I will.) Good to see that you have a job that lets you get a "head"

 

[Deroplatys]

That monkey`s rather disturbing

 

[rustym3talh3ad]

That monkey`s rather disturbing

it keeps staring at me....make it stop make it stop...ohh...wait, the eyes are gone now...im ok. thanks little beetles!

 

[koolkid98]

How many would you say you have?How many did you start with?

 

[Trace]

I have a million beetles, ever since I took over the project I had about that many. The colony has been going strong for years.

 

[koolkid98]

Wow a million!That is a lot i currently have my own dermestid colony im still learning about them though i have about a handful of them i hope they take of in a while i also have another colony that is about a couple hundered strong so im good to go i don't clean skulls though.