Well, some of you on the chatroom had shown some interest in my work at the university with dermestid beetles. So, I figured I'd share some pictures!
I want to warn those of you with sensitive stomachs, these are pictures of dead things and bones and bugs! If things like that bother you, don't look! :evil_lol: Anyone going into biology major might as well get used to it.
Okay, first up, this is where I work right now. We are going to be moving the operation soon. When I start prepping a specimen, I thaw out a freezer critter and skin and gut it. If it is much larger than a small rabbit, I also try to remove some of the muscle and dry it out to beef jerky consistency. If it is much bigger than cat sized, I seperate it into parts (limbs, torso, head, etc.). If it is that large, I also remove the brain.
And here is the tank! This is where the specimen goes next. The dermestids are in a 10(?) gallon fishtank. The white things on the left are paper towels, which I spray with water to provide moisture, and styrofoam, which the beetles burrow into to pupate. On the right are plastic containers for specimens.
A view from the top, with the lid off. Dermestid beetles can fly, but only over certain temps. Obviously, I try to keep it below that temp.
You can see specimens in the cups. Right now there is a mouse, short-tailed shrew, 2 baby rabbits of different ages and a Northern flicker. Each specimen has a tag with information about the specimen on it.
This is one of the baby rabbits. It was killed by a cat a year ago, don't look at me like that!
This is the Northern flicker. They are really pretty birds! He was killed on a road.
This is a closeup, so you can see the beetles better. The adults are the black beetles. The larvae look like brown caterpillars. This specimen is one of the baby rabbits. I actually still have a few more of these guys to do.
Okay, so the beetles have cleaned the specimen, what next? Depends on the size. Anything larger than a pigeon needs to be degreased. Even if the bones look clean, there is still lots of organic nasties inside the bones. Time for a soak in ammonium hydroxide! Sound fancy? Its just water with a tiny bit of store bought ammonia in it. Everything sounds fancy in science.
Here are the ammonia jars I have running right now, right next to the beetles. I'm very space limited, so I use what I can. Every day, I come in and change the water, refilling it with fresh ammonium hydroxide. The beetles themselves don't have much of an odor, but this part does.
This is a grey fox skull, given to me by a trapper. Okay, no preaching to me about fur. I am anti-fur, but I live in PA, the hunting state. So, things like this show up. It is getting close to being done degreasing.
This is a stillborn lamb skeleton. My mom has a friend who raises sheep for meat, so I asked if I could get a couple of babies who died naturally. It's in an earlier stage of degreasing, so the water is dirtier.
My last ammonia guy right now, a red tail hawk. Obviously, we have a special liscense to do this. We don't even know where this guy came from, he just showed up in front of my Profs office (already dead, obviously).
The next stage is either whitening with hydrogen peroxide (optional) or boxing it up! Right now I don't have many boxes to work with, so the skeletons are just sitting around.
Lets take a closer look at a few specimens...
This is a short tailed shrew skull. These guys are actually venemous! Look at all those teeth! These are insectivores, and use those sharp teeth to crunch through bug shells.
A raccoon skull. Also very toothy.
Grey fox skull. Grey foxes are not closely related to red foxes, but are actually basal canines.
Starling skeleton. Starlings are not native to the US.
Short tailed shrew skeleton.
Eastern Screech owl. He actually had a mouse in his stomach when I dissected him. He had gotten hit by a car, which is why his cranium is mostly missing.
Dark eyed junco skeleton, in a box. The boxes I have right now are either super small, or super huge. Luckily, some of the really tiny birds can fit in the boxes.
Although most of the hawk is degreasing right now, some stuff will fall apart if degreased, so I left it out. I am hold the tendons from the foot, which I managed to remove whole. On the table are the talons and the sclerotic rings. The sclerotic ring is a ring of bone that surrounds the eye of birds (and dinosaurs).
This is the hyoid bone from the hawk, along with some of the trachea. In people, the hyoid is mostly cartilagenous, but in birds, it extends into the tongue.
Here is another hyoid bone, this is of a Downy woodpecker. See how long it iis? In woodpeckers, the hyoid curls up and around the top of the cranium! This is how they can extend their tongues so far, to reach into holes for grub.
Anyone recognize this? We had an albino gourami in one of the labs that passed away.
So, that's what I do in my spare time! I'm not actually getting any credit for this, nor am I getting paid. I am, however, learning a lot about anatomy that can't just be gleaned from books, and gaining valuable life experience.
Please post any questions, I'll answer whatever I can!
I want to warn those of you with sensitive stomachs, these are pictures of dead things and bones and bugs! If things like that bother you, don't look! :evil_lol: Anyone going into biology major might as well get used to it.
Okay, first up, this is where I work right now. We are going to be moving the operation soon. When I start prepping a specimen, I thaw out a freezer critter and skin and gut it. If it is much larger than a small rabbit, I also try to remove some of the muscle and dry it out to beef jerky consistency. If it is much bigger than cat sized, I seperate it into parts (limbs, torso, head, etc.). If it is that large, I also remove the brain.
And here is the tank! This is where the specimen goes next. The dermestids are in a 10(?) gallon fishtank. The white things on the left are paper towels, which I spray with water to provide moisture, and styrofoam, which the beetles burrow into to pupate. On the right are plastic containers for specimens.
A view from the top, with the lid off. Dermestid beetles can fly, but only over certain temps. Obviously, I try to keep it below that temp.
You can see specimens in the cups. Right now there is a mouse, short-tailed shrew, 2 baby rabbits of different ages and a Northern flicker. Each specimen has a tag with information about the specimen on it.
This is one of the baby rabbits. It was killed by a cat a year ago, don't look at me like that!
This is the Northern flicker. They are really pretty birds! He was killed on a road.
This is a closeup, so you can see the beetles better. The adults are the black beetles. The larvae look like brown caterpillars. This specimen is one of the baby rabbits. I actually still have a few more of these guys to do.
Okay, so the beetles have cleaned the specimen, what next? Depends on the size. Anything larger than a pigeon needs to be degreased. Even if the bones look clean, there is still lots of organic nasties inside the bones. Time for a soak in ammonium hydroxide! Sound fancy? Its just water with a tiny bit of store bought ammonia in it. Everything sounds fancy in science.
Here are the ammonia jars I have running right now, right next to the beetles. I'm very space limited, so I use what I can. Every day, I come in and change the water, refilling it with fresh ammonium hydroxide. The beetles themselves don't have much of an odor, but this part does.
This is a grey fox skull, given to me by a trapper. Okay, no preaching to me about fur. I am anti-fur, but I live in PA, the hunting state. So, things like this show up. It is getting close to being done degreasing.
This is a stillborn lamb skeleton. My mom has a friend who raises sheep for meat, so I asked if I could get a couple of babies who died naturally. It's in an earlier stage of degreasing, so the water is dirtier.
My last ammonia guy right now, a red tail hawk. Obviously, we have a special liscense to do this. We don't even know where this guy came from, he just showed up in front of my Profs office (already dead, obviously).
The next stage is either whitening with hydrogen peroxide (optional) or boxing it up! Right now I don't have many boxes to work with, so the skeletons are just sitting around.
Lets take a closer look at a few specimens...
This is a short tailed shrew skull. These guys are actually venemous! Look at all those teeth! These are insectivores, and use those sharp teeth to crunch through bug shells.
A raccoon skull. Also very toothy.
Grey fox skull. Grey foxes are not closely related to red foxes, but are actually basal canines.
Starling skeleton. Starlings are not native to the US.
Short tailed shrew skeleton.
Eastern Screech owl. He actually had a mouse in his stomach when I dissected him. He had gotten hit by a car, which is why his cranium is mostly missing.
Dark eyed junco skeleton, in a box. The boxes I have right now are either super small, or super huge. Luckily, some of the really tiny birds can fit in the boxes.
Although most of the hawk is degreasing right now, some stuff will fall apart if degreased, so I left it out. I am hold the tendons from the foot, which I managed to remove whole. On the table are the talons and the sclerotic rings. The sclerotic ring is a ring of bone that surrounds the eye of birds (and dinosaurs).
This is the hyoid bone from the hawk, along with some of the trachea. In people, the hyoid is mostly cartilagenous, but in birds, it extends into the tongue.
Here is another hyoid bone, this is of a Downy woodpecker. See how long it iis? In woodpeckers, the hyoid curls up and around the top of the cranium! This is how they can extend their tongues so far, to reach into holes for grub.
Anyone recognize this? We had an albino gourami in one of the labs that passed away.
So, that's what I do in my spare time! I'm not actually getting any credit for this, nor am I getting paid. I am, however, learning a lot about anatomy that can't just be gleaned from books, and gaining valuable life experience.
Please post any questions, I'll answer whatever I can!
