[NHCOLL-L:5820] RE: turning mummified bat carcasses into skeletons

[Susan Butts]

See "The utility of chicken broth in the preparation of skeletons from 
fresh and fluid preserved vertebrate specimens" in the Collection Forum 
(the journal of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History 
Collections).
You can read it online:
http://www.spnhc.org/20/collection-forum --
Volume 24, 2010, page 80 (click on PDF to view)


On 1/27/2012 5:12 PM, White, Rich wrote:
> 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

-- 
Susan H. Butts, Ph.D.
Senior Collections Manager
Division of Invertebrate Paleontology
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
170 Whitney Avenue, PO Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118