Vulture Culture

Lauren . 27 . Illustrator. UK Museum Educator in Natural History Specimens

[birbbones]

Woahh a Pinned post for my blog!

Hi there! I'm birbbones (Lauren) and this is my blog.

Hi there! I’m Lauren, I’m a UK-based Outreach Museum Educator and Collections technician. On the side, I do freelance illustration and skeletal articulation for clients and for personal work. You’ll probably find posts about my collection, outreach work, and ongoing projects!

I currently am the owner of The Skull Index, which is a public resource website for vertebrate specimens. We are now a registered CIC which allows us to branch out on the project and continue working on freelance outreach workshops and educational talks under ‘The Skull Index’ name. We have a community discord server (18+) which is a huge hub for museum industry professionals, students or visitors, its a great networking resource AND we have channels specific to anything vulture culture too!

Helpful tags!

#my collection - A collection of specimens in my personal collection. #the skull index - Posts about The Skull Index Project.  #asks - Questions, Chats and other asks by users. (Please send me asks! I love answering questions!!) #skeletal-articulation - Skeletons, Articulation work. #skulls - Skulls of vertebrate specimens, from personal collection or other people’s posts.

Other places to find me: Instagram - Birbbones

Art portfolio Website

[birbbones]

Long time no see!

Heres a juvenile Chimpanzee (donated to my work circa 1960s, however the specimen is much older!). It's now deaccessioned and has been donated to me.

[solarstates]

Hello all!

For any curious about NEVADA, the chance to dive in early has come! An ARC period from May through August will be open, with a release of the book on September 1st, 2025. Feel free to check out the campaign on Booksprout, or state your interest below! At the moment, there's space for 25 review copies, but if you want to join in, I can send the file your way as well!

[birbbones]

My friend Xavier is an amazing writer and I'm SO excited to get my grubby hands on another one of his books, I highly recommend checking out his work!! And boost the original post !!

[theskullindexcic]

Calling skull and bone lovers around Leicestershire, UK! We've been invited back to the Friends of the University of Leicester Botanic Garden 's 'Plant Sale & Family Day' on the 29th June 10am - 5pm! We'll have a couple of volunteers helping out and some cool skulls and skeletons, microscopes, stickers, leaflets, and a skull guessing game! There will be plenty of stalls and activities on the day, including plant sales, other wildlife groups, art and craft stalls from local artists, and activities for the kids. If you and your family are interested in zoology and wildlife, especially bones, please come and find us! We should be located with other wildlife groups on one of the lawns. Check out the Friend's of the University of Leicester Botanic Garden's page for more information about the event closer to the time We also plan on selling official 'The Skull Index' recycled acrylic pins, featuring skulls of two species, to raise funds for The Rainforest Trust!

[theskullindexcic]

Red-and-green Macaw [Ara chloropterus] submitted by The Woods Collection.

[birbbones]

Did these animals die naturally before collecting their skulls?

Hi Anon! The specimens in my collection and those I work with for clients come from various sources! So it's easier to ask about an individual specimen if you're curious about its source rather than the entire collection, as the sourcing is vast haha!

I work in the museum industry and source animals from legal and sustainable origins. Which is anything from roadkill (RTAs), nature found, donated by the general public, zoos, wildlife hospitals/facilities where the animal passed ' naturally ' (old age, succumbed to injury, stillborn, fetal, failure to thrives) or via Phenytoin & pentobarbitals (animals are legally signed over to me), taxidermists who part with the carcasses after carcass casting for mounts, byproducts from gamekeepers (gifted, not bought), strandings, historical era skulls (like the rowland ward & theobald bros early 1900s big cats, and via other collectors who part with their collections to downsize. etc!!

[birbbones]

Dachshund Skeletal Articulation finished for a friend :)

[theskullindexcic]

Skull Index Community Discord Server

Come join the official Skull Index Community server! We have an active and welcoming 18+ community of hobbyists, industry professionals, and academics. The server has several channels for specimen showcasing, advice or identification, and professional development. We also host monthly giveaways and plan to host even more community events in 2025. If you'd like to get involved with the project this is one of the best ways to connect with our staff!

[theskullindexcic]

Javan leopard (Panthera pardus melas) added to the site thanks to collaborator M.M! Such a neat island subspecies!

[theskullindexcic]

Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) added to the site thanks to collaborator Haunted Remains!

[theskullindexcic]

What is the Skull Index?

The Skull Index is an entirely volunteer-run non-profit collaborative educational project. We are working with private collectors, educational institutions, and museums to create a public free to use osteological reference website.

The project was developed in 2023 between @birbbones, @dread-doughnuts, and another friend. We recognized that a gap exists between professional organizations and private specimen collectors, which we hope to bridge with our project. We also recognize that there is a lack of publicly available resources for hobbyist collectors and especially in the age of AI we feel it's important to create one.

We are always accepting submissions of new specimens for the website. If you have a specimen you'd like to submit more information can be found on our Get Involved page. The best way to get in touch with our team is either via email ([email protected]) or by joining our Community Discord Server, though we can also be contacted through messages and asks on this blog!

New submissions will be posted to this blog as we upload them to the website, however, we also have a queue running of previously submitted specimens that will be posted once a day.

We hope to see the project grow even more in 2025!

[theskullindexcic]

Three specimens of moose (Acles acles) have been added to the index thanks to collaborator Osteolation!

[birbbones]

what skeleton has been your favorite in your personal collection? (not work)

My old geriatric Binturong! He's going to be a very fun build once he's fully degreased, the poor guy only has a few teeth left. He's an old captive-bred individual.

[birbbones]

in the middle of reorganising everything, it is a mess rn

[birbbones]

Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus) being added to The Skull Index once the new website redesign is done!

[birbbones]

Here's an anencephalic Calf I'm working on! Hoping to most more skele articulation nd collection videos on tiktok, so feel free to follow!! https://www.tiktok.com/@birbbone if there's any specific animals you want to see out of my collection or what skeles I'm working on please comment or message!! I'd love to make more educational videos

[birbbones]

Striped Hyena [Hyaena hyaena]