Dog Skull Maceration OR Another Disturbing Project by Bio [WARNING: GRAPHIC PICS!!!]
- Thread starter BioHazard
- Start date
Very interesting... I'm impatient as hell, so I would have manually scrubbed the flesh off and then whitened it...
On an odd note, looks like a boxer mix
Yeah, I would say it is some kind of bully mix. Not too surprising, considering dog breed demographics. Unfortunately, a lot of bully breeds get put down, and this was one of them.
I wish I could just scrub the flesh off, but the beast had mummified. Mummies are actually one of the most difficult kinds of specimens to deal with, because they take a lot of time and work to prepare. The flesh is so attached to the bone, you would have to remove bone to get it all off. If you have a fresh specimen, the whole process goes MUCH faster. If the dog had been fresh, I would have been looking at having it done in a matter of weeks, rather than months.
I did pull the dog out and cleaned him off a bit today, but did not have great lighting for photos, and as daylight was running short, didn't want to try to juggle the camera and the scalpel (actually, I have lost my scalpel, lol. Need to buy a new dissection kit...). The head is coming along great! I was able to remove some large sections of flesh from around the eye sockets and zygomatic arch, as well as from the back of the skull, the palate, and around the teeth. Most of the teeth having fallen out, which is typical for maceration. With some other methods, like beetling, the connective tissue holding the teeth in remains. But maceration shows no mercy. There is still some tissue left, particularly in the back of the skull (occipital region) and the top of the skull. I am very pleased with how it is coming along!
Mummified flesh is the really tough stuff, right? In that case I have a 2 foot long catfish skeleton with mummified tissue on it. It's as hard as a rock.
Yeah man, it's SUCH a pita. You look at it and think, oh, most of the flesh is gone, this will be easy. So wrong. Just soak, soak, soak. Make the microbes do the dirty work.
I would just use a scalpel and dissection scissors.Don't go ANYWHERE near bone though. I have ruined specimens trying to get dried flesh off, and cutting off delicate bone. After you get all the real easy stuff, soak it for 24 hours. Remaining flesh will poof up with water (and you will probably see flesh you didn't know was there). Use a scalpel and try to gently scrape the meat off. I have heard of people even buying some kind of powdered meat tenderizer to help with this, but I have never tried this, nor do I know where one finds powdered meat tenderizer. Otherwise, just keep soaking and scraping. Be careful with the fish skull though...it might be more liable to disarticulate than a mammal skull. Just keep an eye on it.
:22_yikes::yuck: :crazy: :barf:
That about sums up my feelings on this, lmao!!!
:iagree:
HAHAHAHA! As revolting as this thread may sound, it is still quite informational and interesting.
