[NHCOLL-L:5816] turning mummified bat carcasses into skeletons

[Cindy A Ramotnik]

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