[NHCOLL-L:5817] RE: turning mummified bat carcasses into skeletons

[White, Rich]

Chicken broth.  No kidding, brush some chicken broth on them let them dry, then feed to the dermestids.  Check them often, though, as the beetles can certainly consume bat bones.  It isn't PC any more, but I used to paint the cleaner portions with phenol to keep the beetles from eating the bone.


Richard S. White, Director
International Wildlife Museum
4800 West Gates Pass Road
Tucson, AZ 85745

Phone: 520-629-0100 ext 252
Fax:       520-618-3561


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Cindy A Ramotnik
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 2:47 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:5816] turning mummified bat carcasses into skeletons

Greetings. I’m looking for recommendations on preparing mummified bat carcasses as skeletons. The bat carcasses were collected from a mine floor in 1995 and are extremely dried out. Some of the carcasses will remain as is but we’d like to skeletonize the rest.  Unfortunately our dermestid beetle colony isn’t very interested in them despite soaking the carcasses in chicken bouillon and bacon grease.  I’d consider maceration but am not certain if this might work too well in that we could end up with tiny disarticulated bones.  Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
Cindy

Cindy Ramotnik
U.S. Geological Survey
Department of Biology
MSC03 2020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
505-277-5369