Since I missed it last Friday, bonus early-morning bone post!
This is another one of my favorites. Coyote skull! Canid skulls are always a delight, but coyotes are one of my absolute favorite animals, so this one’s extra special to me :)
One of my favorite features of canine skulls is the sagittal crest. The sagittal crest on this skull is best visible in the last photo - it’s the thinner, vaguely triangular ridge of bone at the back of the skull, on top of the braincase. The sagittal crest is where some of the major muscles involved in chewing attach, and therefore the presence/size of one is associated with stronger bite force. Pretty cool, methinks :3
one great thing about moving is I can dedicate time to hobbies I was never given the time, resources, space, or energy to do.
One of those hobbies is oddities collecting! i will put a read more here.
I wanna say I was still in highschool so around 8-10ish yrs ago a mother possum passed away in my yard. My mom and I rescued her babies and months later we rediscovered her body. (my mom moved her under a section of the fence and I guess we just. forgot she was there? which is so sad but I promise I'm doing her justice)
I was able to degrease the skull but after that I couldn't really do much. I didn't have any space to work on this hobby and while my family respects that I'm interested in more "macabre" things, they still think it's gross. I kept the skull in a bucket in the garage for years because I didn't want to hear comments about it while working and I wasn't sure what to do after the degreasing step >.<
I'm much more knowledgeable now and I've recently moved. I'm finally able to give her some love!
Step 1 was to glue her teeth back in. Many had fallen out over time. I used mod podge because I don't plan on putting her in water (which would dissolve the glue), it dries clear, and it blends in with the bone when dry. I'm not a huge mod podge fan personally. I dislike that it dries slow and takes three weeks to "cure" so it's got a perpetual sticky texture.
I'm resting the skull on a wrist rest to stabilize it. Since it's so old there's no connective tissue left and the bone segments were very loose.
Step 2 was to glue all the connective bone seams and glue inside the holes of the skull. I'm doing this mainly for stability. I don't want the skull to fall apart or break. I actually found an old dermestid beetle nest inside the brain/nasal cavity that I had to clean out. Thank u beetles. I used a chip clip to hold certain segments in place as well.
And that was pretty much it. I plan on getting some museum wax to attach the jaw pieces to the skull & then I'll work on making a display for her
I think I'm happy enough with this side to call it done! This side of my collection cabinet features some of my special pieces - details on each one below!
At the top we have my antler crown with my hand painted styrofoam head, along with a doe skull and a couple antlers (the small one I tried making a little dreamcatcher with). The antlers and skull are special because they were all found on the same day during an epic bone hunting adventure with my dad! I was an excitable young vulture and documented the emotional journey on this blog (over 12 years ago!), so if you want to relive this experience click on the numbers below in order:
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
And as fate would have it I ended up mounting that cow skull above my cabinet on the right side, so she's with her friends too!
In the center is my opossum collection, I don't know how I ended up a little obsessed with opossums but they have a special place in my heart <3 The opossum on top of the jar is Voldy with his skeleton, technically the first bones I ever found although I wasn't collecting at that point. Not too long after I did start collecting and my dad brought him home!
Don't mind my baby opo skeleton, he's in need of a few repairs (and I can't believe I lost his tail!!) but he'll be back in his full glory soon!
Finally we have this special little display with a coyote skull and deer skull - I collected these two while riding on horseback through cattle pastures in New Mexico on a once-in-a-lifetime cattle drive experience! To go along with the skulls I have the custom water bottle from the cattle ranch (and a second bottle from another cattle driving experience!) and a handmade barbed wire cross, gifted by an old cowboy on the drive with us. I'm hoping to get some pictures printed from the drive to add to this display!
I'm so happy to see my collection again and experience all the memories that come with it <3
