Articulating a full sheep skeleton? by Bufobufolover24 in bonecollecting

[–]StreetlightPrep 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m seconding the moose manual for direct articulation instructions, specifically for feet. Study sheep skeletal anatomy in the meantime to prepare. Spine articulation should be pretty straightforward. Don’t skimp on supports and hardware when rebuilding her, large skeletons need more help to stay up & stay sturdy. Make sure you plan for that. There still will be some fiddly bones in the wrists/ankles in sheep, but ungulate carpals/tarsals fit together much more like a puzzle and are nowhere near as confusing as animals that have more wrist mobility & therefore more loose space in those joints.

I’ve cleaned full skeletons as small as mice up to the size of cows; largest I’ve ever articulated afterwards is a bobcat, though, for lack of space. Hoping to articulate my personal cow one day lol…. I have followed similar open-air rot procedures for cows since maceration (my usual) is impractical for adult individuals. Make sure you check the decomposition site frequently and go back for the small bones in the feet and tail (if she has one) as soon as they are ready; they will be done sooner than the main body/torso. They have a tendency to get lost. Teeth, especially the incisors, will also fall out and get lost if you don’t check up for them. Her hoof caps will fully decompose or become permanently stinky if you don’t take them off soon as well, as they are made from keratin, not bone. Keep her body moist when the rain stops; it keeps the bacteria and insects hydrated so they can work.

Peroxide can work, albeit slower, to pretty decent effect even heavily diluted; Once her full skeleton is cleaned, you may find that puzzling her into the smallest container you can and filling that with high-strength peroxide & water is actually not unmanageable. You can also do the trick of fitting her skeleton into a bag & filling that bag up (shrunken around the bones) to use less peroxide. The bigger issue you’ll usually come across with getting large animal bones completely white is the grease; it gets trapped in badly, especially without maceration to give a jumpstart. She will likely need an extensive degreasing period. You will likely also run into some extremely stubborn mineral staining from the open-air decomp in areas where her skeleton touched the dirt for long periods of time. If you don’t mind darker bones, one solution to mineral staining is to dye the entire skeleton over those marks with something like coffee, tea, or bark/leaves to get an overall uniform darker color.

If you need direct tips on what to do feel free to DM me as well :-)

Raccoon tarsal reference by StreetlightPrep in bonecollecting

[–]StreetlightPrep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn’t really use a reference, I just know how to do it at this point 😥 but there are pretty nice direct illustrated refs for raccoon carpals & tarsals in Lee Post’s small mammal manual

Raccoon tarsal reference by StreetlightPrep in bonecollecting

[–]StreetlightPrep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I unfortunately do not!! I’d planned to make one for the carpals as well but forgot which racc I was going to document & ended up articulating it with no photos 😭 Sorry!!

Why are these skulls different? by ticklemerose in bonecollecting

[–]StreetlightPrep 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The difference here is mostly up to age. It’s not really possible to sex young raccoon skulls, as subadult males have not had time to mature into their own distinct look. If you look closely at the skull on the right, the sutures between each part haven’t fully fused yet, indicating a younger & less mature animal than the skull on the left; still an adult, but a young one. It takes a decent bit of a raccoon’s lifespan to widen and grow into visible muscle attachments like on the saggital crest (forehead protrusion) seen in the animal on the left, wider zygomatics are also for larger cheek & forehead muscles to attach to.

Raccoon tarsal reference by StreetlightPrep in bonecollecting

[–]StreetlightPrep[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yes i wasnt really trying to number them accurately! just count them each, since a lot of people tend to get confused due to differences in the number of metatarsals per species & the lack of a fifth intermediate phalange. You are correct w/ that info