| THE FAQ PAGE! |
Q. Why would anyone want to mess around with dead bones?
A. Oh come now, don't you remember when you were young how fascinated you
were with things like dinosaurs? Didn't you ever put models together? Were you
ever interested in your own body or anatomy? Have the shapes and forms of
nature never fascinated you? Most kids before they reach an age of artificially
stifled curiosity, are fascinated by bones and skeletons, even more so if the
bones are real. Skeleton projects have enthused students like few other
hands-on projects I have ever seen.
Q. So how do I go about getting an animal?
A. Often it is the tail that wags the dog. Someone comes across a dead animal
and this leads to a desire to do a skeleton project. For those that are starting
with the idea of a project and need an animal, there are many sources,
depending upon where you live. With the right attitude and the backing of a
school or institution, animals can sometimes be acquired from a zoo, game farm,
animal shelter, hunter, Fish and Game Department, farm, meat processing plant,
taxidermist, or even collected off the road as road-kill.
Q. What animal should I try to get?
A. Almost any large bird, mammal, or reptile can work for a skeleton project. A
mature skeleton works much better than one from a young, still growing animal.
Something rabbit-sized or larger is easier to put back together than a small
animal due to the tiny-ness of some of the bones, especially in the feet. There
are ways of making skeletons out of smaller animals if that is the desire,
however, by not taking the animal all the way apart and doing what is called a
ligamentary skeleton. This is where the ligaments are left in place and they hold
the bones together.
Q. What animals can I legally work on?
A. Depends on who you are and where you are. Generally, there will be few
problems if the animal is huntable or domestic. Marine mammals and many
birds often come with so many layers of regulations that only a museum or a
federal agency will be able to legally process the animal.
Q. Can I catch diseases doing this?
A. Yes. For that reason you should wear rubber gloves, but in twenty-five years
of bone-work I've never personally known anyone to get sick from processing
animal skeletons. You are much more likely to catch something from your best
friend than from a dead animal.
Q. How do I clean the skeleton?
A. There are many ways of cleaning animal skeletons. Depending on the size,
age, and species of the animal. Many bone specialists have a favorite method.
For classroom use, some methods are better than others. Some methods work
much faster than other methods. Bones can be rotted, macerated, boiled,
cleaned with chemicals, enzymes or bugs. Details are given in the bone manuals
for the different methods.
Q. How do I bleach animal bones?
A. The easiest way is to put the bones out in the sun for a year. The problem
being that someone or something might find them before you get back to them.
To safely bleach the bones artificially, drop them in 3% hydrogen peroxide (in a
plastic container with a lid) for several days. The hydrogen peroxide used is the
kind you can buy in the brown bottle at the drugstore. The bones should come
out very nice looking. Let them dry. If they start looking oily and greasy, they will
need to be de-greased some more. This should really be done first before
bleaching.
Q. So how do I get the oils out?
A. Soak the bones in 50% clear ammonia solution, using a plastic container, for
a week. Rinse them and if they are very oily they may need to be soaked again in
fresh ammonia solution. some bones are much more oily than others. After
rinsing, they can be bleached.
Q. What's the best way to clean bones for a classroom?
A. There probably is no best way, but there are clearly some methods that you
don't want to do. Most classroom projects I've worked on have done their bone
cleaning by boiling the skeletons outside over an electric hotplate or, for big
skeletons, over a propane burner. This is often a weekend project or, for small
skeletons it can happen over a long day. It often takes eight hours of boiling for
many skeletons. Small or young animals can take a lot less time.
A new method that is gaining favor for classrooms is to sandwich the skinned
and gutted animal between fresh horse manure in a plastic tote (with a snap-on
lid) for four to six months. When done, retrieving the bones is like archaeology.
You get to excavate a cleaned skeleton from what looks and smells like mulched
grass clippings. The carcass in the tote can stay in the classroom without
offensive smells. The lid probably needs to be popped open every week for fresh
oxygen. This is the "Horse Poop Processing Method."
Q. How long will a skeleton project take?
A. This depends mostly on what method you use to clean the bones, as methods
can range from a week to a year or more for cleaning. Assuming the skeleton is
ready to assemble, a skeleton can take from 40 to well over 100 hours to
articulate. A classroom organized into groups can get a bear or wolf-sized
skeleton finished mostly in a week if everything goes smoothly.
Q. How many people can work on a skeleton at once?
A. This depends on how big the skeleton is. For something the size of a rabbit or
chicken, probably not more than two people. For an animal the size of a wolf or
bear, a whole class can work on it by dividing the animal up into sections and
having pairs of students clean and later articulate their own section. As the
sections are combined into a whole skeleton, less and less people can work on it
at one time.
Q. If I do a skeleton project with my class, how much money will I need to raise?
A. This depends on how much money you already have. It also depends on the
size and type of animal and how you intend to clean it. A mature moose skeleton
was cleaned and articulated and put on a base with wheels for $120. A wolf
skeleton came to about $80 worth of materials.
Q. Why don't you have a manual for a horse skeleton?
A. I was hoping that the moose manual would suffice for a horse. They are
about the same size. The main difference is in the feet. There are many well
done sources of information about horse skeletons such as; "An Atlas of Animal
Anatomy for Artists" by Ellenberger and Baum. In truth, I have never had a
horse skeleton to work on, but one day I'll get there and add horsey details to the
existing moose manual.
Q. How did you get started with bones?
A. I was one of those nerdy science obsessed kids who would rather be labeling
my butterfly collection than going to the party down the street. My interest in
science carried through adulthood and I was in the right place at the right time
and volunteered to help at the local natural history museum with a whale
skeleton.
Q. What is the biggest skeleton you've ever done?
A. A Sperm Whale at 41-feet long.
Q. What is the smallest skeleton you've ever done?
A. I did a little brown bat once as a project with my daughter when she was in
Jr. High.
Q. Do you have or have you considered doing a manual on human skeletons?
A. The skeletons I work on have been animals that were found dead, usually as
road-kill, or animals that have washed up on local beaches. I've never found a
dead human, besides, somehow I think the locals would take a dim view if they
thought I was working on human remains in my garage. Besides, there is no
shortage of books that describe the workings of the human skeleton. I
understand there is a small demand for information on repairing articulated
human skeletons, but this is not something I have ever worked with. Most human
skeletons are loosely articulated so that the joints have mobility to them. This
requires fasteners that are made specifically for this purpose. There are places
that articulate human skeletons and these would be a likely source to acquire
the fasteners.
Q. What is this about a new technique for cleaning skeletons using hydrogen
peroxide?
A. I haven't done much more experimentation with it after my first burst of
enthusiasm. I had good luck with it on a few things and then got over confident
and ruined a series of small skeletons (I was trying to get a vole skeleton to
come out fully articulated). I think it can be done this way but the timing has to be
just right. There is a brief write-up about this method in the Small Mammals
Manual, and a more complete write-up in the Bone Builder's Notebook.
Essentially, small skeletons (or sections of skeletons) are soaked in ammonia for
a week or so, and then in 15% hydrogen peroxide for a couple weeks, then in a
fresh batch of 15% hydrogen peroxide. If the timing and the concentrations are
right, it is possible to get a fully articulated skeleton out of the solution with no
obnoxious smells in the process. -----It is also easy to get a skeleton that is totally
disarticulated with severe bone damage.
A. Oh come now, don't you remember when you were young how fascinated you
were with things like dinosaurs? Didn't you ever put models together? Were you
ever interested in your own body or anatomy? Have the shapes and forms of
nature never fascinated you? Most kids before they reach an age of artificially
stifled curiosity, are fascinated by bones and skeletons, even more so if the
bones are real. Skeleton projects have enthused students like few other
hands-on projects I have ever seen.
Q. So how do I go about getting an animal?
A. Often it is the tail that wags the dog. Someone comes across a dead animal
and this leads to a desire to do a skeleton project. For those that are starting
with the idea of a project and need an animal, there are many sources,
depending upon where you live. With the right attitude and the backing of a
school or institution, animals can sometimes be acquired from a zoo, game farm,
animal shelter, hunter, Fish and Game Department, farm, meat processing plant,
taxidermist, or even collected off the road as road-kill.
Q. What animal should I try to get?
A. Almost any large bird, mammal, or reptile can work for a skeleton project. A
mature skeleton works much better than one from a young, still growing animal.
Something rabbit-sized or larger is easier to put back together than a small
animal due to the tiny-ness of some of the bones, especially in the feet. There
are ways of making skeletons out of smaller animals if that is the desire,
however, by not taking the animal all the way apart and doing what is called a
ligamentary skeleton. This is where the ligaments are left in place and they hold
the bones together.
Q. What animals can I legally work on?
A. Depends on who you are and where you are. Generally, there will be few
problems if the animal is huntable or domestic. Marine mammals and many
birds often come with so many layers of regulations that only a museum or a
federal agency will be able to legally process the animal.
Q. Can I catch diseases doing this?
A. Yes. For that reason you should wear rubber gloves, but in twenty-five years
of bone-work I've never personally known anyone to get sick from processing
animal skeletons. You are much more likely to catch something from your best
friend than from a dead animal.
Q. How do I clean the skeleton?
A. There are many ways of cleaning animal skeletons. Depending on the size,
age, and species of the animal. Many bone specialists have a favorite method.
For classroom use, some methods are better than others. Some methods work
much faster than other methods. Bones can be rotted, macerated, boiled,
cleaned with chemicals, enzymes or bugs. Details are given in the bone manuals
for the different methods.
Q. How do I bleach animal bones?
A. The easiest way is to put the bones out in the sun for a year. The problem
being that someone or something might find them before you get back to them.
To safely bleach the bones artificially, drop them in 3% hydrogen peroxide (in a
plastic container with a lid) for several days. The hydrogen peroxide used is the
kind you can buy in the brown bottle at the drugstore. The bones should come
out very nice looking. Let them dry. If they start looking oily and greasy, they will
need to be de-greased some more. This should really be done first before
bleaching.
Q. So how do I get the oils out?
A. Soak the bones in 50% clear ammonia solution, using a plastic container, for
a week. Rinse them and if they are very oily they may need to be soaked again in
fresh ammonia solution. some bones are much more oily than others. After
rinsing, they can be bleached.
Q. What's the best way to clean bones for a classroom?
A. There probably is no best way, but there are clearly some methods that you
don't want to do. Most classroom projects I've worked on have done their bone
cleaning by boiling the skeletons outside over an electric hotplate or, for big
skeletons, over a propane burner. This is often a weekend project or, for small
skeletons it can happen over a long day. It often takes eight hours of boiling for
many skeletons. Small or young animals can take a lot less time.
A new method that is gaining favor for classrooms is to sandwich the skinned
and gutted animal between fresh horse manure in a plastic tote (with a snap-on
lid) for four to six months. When done, retrieving the bones is like archaeology.
You get to excavate a cleaned skeleton from what looks and smells like mulched
grass clippings. The carcass in the tote can stay in the classroom without
offensive smells. The lid probably needs to be popped open every week for fresh
oxygen. This is the "Horse Poop Processing Method."
Q. How long will a skeleton project take?
A. This depends mostly on what method you use to clean the bones, as methods
can range from a week to a year or more for cleaning. Assuming the skeleton is
ready to assemble, a skeleton can take from 40 to well over 100 hours to
articulate. A classroom organized into groups can get a bear or wolf-sized
skeleton finished mostly in a week if everything goes smoothly.
Q. How many people can work on a skeleton at once?
A. This depends on how big the skeleton is. For something the size of a rabbit or
chicken, probably not more than two people. For an animal the size of a wolf or
bear, a whole class can work on it by dividing the animal up into sections and
having pairs of students clean and later articulate their own section. As the
sections are combined into a whole skeleton, less and less people can work on it
at one time.
Q. If I do a skeleton project with my class, how much money will I need to raise?
A. This depends on how much money you already have. It also depends on the
size and type of animal and how you intend to clean it. A mature moose skeleton
was cleaned and articulated and put on a base with wheels for $120. A wolf
skeleton came to about $80 worth of materials.
Q. Why don't you have a manual for a horse skeleton?
A. I was hoping that the moose manual would suffice for a horse. They are
about the same size. The main difference is in the feet. There are many well
done sources of information about horse skeletons such as; "An Atlas of Animal
Anatomy for Artists" by Ellenberger and Baum. In truth, I have never had a
horse skeleton to work on, but one day I'll get there and add horsey details to the
existing moose manual.
Q. How did you get started with bones?
A. I was one of those nerdy science obsessed kids who would rather be labeling
my butterfly collection than going to the party down the street. My interest in
science carried through adulthood and I was in the right place at the right time
and volunteered to help at the local natural history museum with a whale
skeleton.
Q. What is the biggest skeleton you've ever done?
A. A Sperm Whale at 41-feet long.
Q. What is the smallest skeleton you've ever done?
A. I did a little brown bat once as a project with my daughter when she was in
Jr. High.
Q. Do you have or have you considered doing a manual on human skeletons?
A. The skeletons I work on have been animals that were found dead, usually as
road-kill, or animals that have washed up on local beaches. I've never found a
dead human, besides, somehow I think the locals would take a dim view if they
thought I was working on human remains in my garage. Besides, there is no
shortage of books that describe the workings of the human skeleton. I
understand there is a small demand for information on repairing articulated
human skeletons, but this is not something I have ever worked with. Most human
skeletons are loosely articulated so that the joints have mobility to them. This
requires fasteners that are made specifically for this purpose. There are places
that articulate human skeletons and these would be a likely source to acquire
the fasteners.
Q. What is this about a new technique for cleaning skeletons using hydrogen
peroxide?
A. I haven't done much more experimentation with it after my first burst of
enthusiasm. I had good luck with it on a few things and then got over confident
and ruined a series of small skeletons (I was trying to get a vole skeleton to
come out fully articulated). I think it can be done this way but the timing has to be
just right. There is a brief write-up about this method in the Small Mammals
Manual, and a more complete write-up in the Bone Builder's Notebook.
Essentially, small skeletons (or sections of skeletons) are soaked in ammonia for
a week or so, and then in 15% hydrogen peroxide for a couple weeks, then in a
fresh batch of 15% hydrogen peroxide. If the timing and the concentrations are
right, it is possible to get a fully articulated skeleton out of the solution with no
obnoxious smells in the process. -----It is also easy to get a skeleton that is totally
disarticulated with severe bone damage.
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