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Today's progress on the collection of formalin-preserved minks I'm working on! Eight of these heads will end up in my etsy shop eventually!
To see original content from me far more often follow me on instagram (the username is the same as here).
*GORE WARNING*
These pictures are much more graphic than what I normally post, but these aren’t intended to be disturbing and I do want to share these to show a couple of the different ways museums process larger specimens. These are two of the Florida panthers that the Field Museum was prepping during Members Night, one was being stuffed with cotton and sewn to become a study skin while the other was being skinned and dissected. Specimens like these are very important to museum collections because they allow researchers to study populations more comprehensively, and these animals especially valuable as big cats are underrepresented in the Field Museum’s collection.
BRAIN SCOOP: DISSECTION LIVE STREAM!
HEEEEEEY!
TOMORROW, Friday November 10th, from 12:30 - 3:30pm central -- we will be live streaming the complete dissection and preparation of a North American Beaver (Castor canadensis), straight to our YouTube channel!
You can tune in online, OR - if you’re in the area - come see it in person to enjoy the complete olfactory experience in the Grainger Science Hub at The Field Museum! (it’s free w/basic admission).
And, if you can’t tune in live, never fear; the recording will be up on the channel for later viewing.
WHOOOOO
Specimen prep went well! For a first attempt I feel pretty proud, it's intact and I was one of only 2 people who'd never skinned anything before!
Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
Working on this specimen next! I'm so excited. Ospreys are one of my favorite raptors.
Disclaimer: This species is protected by the MBTA, and it is unlawful to own any parts of this species without a permit. I am a volunteer specimen preparator for the Cincinnati Museum Center which grants me the ability to work with such specimens.
When working with teeny, tiny bones, the worst thing imaginable is losing track of which jaw belongs with which skull. For this reason, a specimen number is written on every bone possible. This means a lot of incredibly delicate work for some of UMMZ’s volunteers, who use a steady hand, a very thin pen, and some excellent penmanship to keep every bone sorted properly.
This Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) must have been difficult to label. Just look at those skull sections! Some of the surfaces aren’t much wider than a needle.
Photo credit: Mary Margaret Ferraro
Ash has been trying more specimen prep, and I am super impressed by these beautiful skins. This female American Robin (Turdus migratorius) has become an excellent study skin, and the organ removal process seems to have gone splendidly (slightly more graphic photos below). When the skin is pulled away from the keel, the bird’s specialized chest bone, you can see that the feathers have a layered effect in their coloring. The stomach feathers are white on the outside, but further down the rachis or shaft or the feather, they are black. We only see the white area because of the layering of feather over feathers!
Photo credit: Ash Boudrie
