#animal skeleton
This October I have been working on a series of marine skeletons! Here are the ones I’ve done so far:
A Harbour Seal:
A Stingray:
And a Seahorse:
Stickers are coming to my Etsy shop soon!
This big old armadillo skeleton washed up after a recent flood. Never used to have any around here but they’ve been moving further north in the last few years. Now they are all over the place!
Sadly I didn’t have anything big enough to carry him (always good to be extra cautious handling armadillo remains as they are known to carry leprosy; granted the very few cases of people contracting it from them were believed to be because they prepared and ate the armadillos but still good to be extra careful) but I’ll be heading back tomorrow to grab him if he’s still there.
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Juvenile Opossum Skeleton
My baby is complete! Took a long time to get the motivation to power through articulating and even longer to get pictures I was happy with, but I am so proud of this fella. I still need to add the rib cage cartilage and sternum bones once I figure out what material to use. Shown with an average adult opossum skull; when I get a complete adult skeleton they will be a hissing duo!
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It feels good to have a productive work table going! Finally started drilling on the bobcat with the first focus on the spine. The tentacles were wonderful to help decide on how to position everything and I’m going to attempt to add epoxy cartilage between each vertebra.
The foot on the right side is from a young coyote leg I found years ago and finally got around to articulating. It’s nearly identical in size to the bobcat’s feet so it was great practice and it will be a lovely addition to the foot collection!
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Getting back into the swing of things by fixing up my articulated deer leg! I pulled out my new rotary tool to practice drilling and after figuring out the correct placements it was a very easy process. A fallen oak tree made a perfect base for this piece.
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This lovely chicken skeleton will be joining my bobcat for a grand articulation piece. The weather has just been miserable around here so I’ve had no motivation to progress on any bone projects. I won’t be able to articulate much of this skeleton without the bobcat already done but I’m hoping to start doing something with this one at least.
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Some close-ups of the bobcat skeleton! He’s all bagged up now and waiting for me to finally pull out the new rotary tool and have some fun.
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Getting the bobcat paw bones together! Front (top) and rear (bottom), left and right respectively. I’m putting in a lot of research to get these together as accurately as possible since good references are so difficult to find. I believe this is as accurate as I can get without having cleaned the skeleton myself so I’m calling it done and moving onto the next step!
Edit: Damn, just noticed the largest phalange on the right rear foot is placed wrong. It should be switched with the second largest one on the left of it!
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My official articulation starter kit!
I was long overdue for legit articulating supplies and my bobcat helped push me into throwing some well spent money on this hobby. My new articulating supplies include:
Helping Hands (blue tentacle thing) - I’ve been eyeing one of these since realizing that stacking various objects to hold up my baby opossum skeleton was not working. This thing is huge and very adjustable so it will easily hold up small and medium-sized skeletons while positioning bones. It was supposed to come with 6 arms but I guess I got an extra? And a free wire cutter!
Rotary Tool - I spent a long time looking at rotary tools, mini drills, and even battery-powered screwdrivers to find something that was simpler for an occasional articulator. I’ll be doing less than a handful of skeletons per year (if that) so I didn’t need anything fancy but ultimately thought a rotary tool fit the job best and decided on this mini rotary tool. It included a few different size bits (1/32, 1/16, 1/8) that should work great for both small and medium skeletons.
Wire - I picked up a couple rolls of galvanized steel wire that would work with the two smaller drill bits (they didn’t have much for the larger 1/8 bit). The galvanized steel is strong and should provide a great hold but I may get some lighter weight wire for smaller skeletons in the future.
Glue - I’m going with water soluble glue to make fixing mistakes or disassembling the skeletons easier. I have some wood glue and craft glue on hand but also have various superglues on hand if when I get impatient!
Epoxy - I’ve seen the Milliput Superfine brand highly recommended by other articulators for rebuilding cartilage. It comes in two types of clay that are mixed together then sculpted, completely hardening after drying. I love sculpting so I’m excited to use this stuff!
Not pictured: Dust mask or respirator for bone dust! Bone dust is very dangerous so breathing protection is required. My local hardware store was all sold out (thanks to a certain pandemic) so I’m looking online for some options.
Let’s get articulating baby!
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I’m finally getting the bobcat laid out and have run into some questionable parts. The first photo shows the collection of parts in question: tail vertebrae with a possible extra piece since it doesn’t fit into the flow of the rest, possible carpals/tarsals and extra toe bones, all matched up toe bones with a mismatch pair, and the claws matched up as closely as possible.
The second photo shows a closeup of the possible carpals and tarsals. All references I’ve been able to find show that there are 7 carpals and 6 tarsals for bobcats and I’ve successfully identified those ones. I believe pair #3 could be carpals located near the dew claw but I only found one image that can support that theory.
The third photo shows the sternum bones with an oddly-shaped piece I haven’t seen in any other images of feline or canine sternum bones. I’ve also looked at feline x-rays but still didn’t see a similar-shaped piece.
The extra pieces are throwing me off but I’m not surprised since I also found a small brown claw sheath when I received the skeleton. I’m sure multiple skeletons were cleaned in the same beetle tank and the seller accidentally picked up some remnants of other creatures when bagging this guy up.
If anyone recognizes these bits please feel free to send me a message!
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After a year my picture taking hasn’t improved but the bobcat definitely has! Finally calling it done on degreasing the final bones to this skeleton. You’d think this was a pig or bear because of how long it’s taken, but it was likely just inconsistent heating and periods of forgetfulness with some over-thoroughness. He was a very greasy boy to begin with though! Now it’s time to get official articulating supplies together and finish this project.
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