Today for a class field trip we went to a place called “Moro Cojo Slough”. It’s a slough near some ag fields, and an old cow pasture. As we were talking we came across a collection of bones on the bank of the slough. These as my professor said were the remains of a cow. It looked like it died and they just got scattered by action of the water. They were also in good shape (no gnaw marks, still smooth), so I took some. I had to be sneaky so my prof wouldnt tell us to put them back. Anyway, I collected two leg bones. One kind of largish and thick, and the other shorter and a bit thinner. Don’t ask me which ones these are, cause I dont know. They jaw bones were there too. Damn, i should have snagged that as well (it had all the teeth even). There were also spots that looked like a bird had exploded there (feathers scattered about).
Anyway, any of you out there collect bones you find out in nature? What kinds do you have? (The ultimate would have been finding the skull). In fact…i think I may go dig up that cat I buried in our backyard right now (yes, I am morbid )
Psssshhhh…nah. Not unless i want the soup to have hints of mud, and brackish water algae. Besides, it’s much cheaper to just buy beef boulion from the store!
Sorry, i’m gonna tell ya :). The cat was one that I found dead in my yard months ago. Dont worry…was just gonna clean the skull up to see what it looks like
I have had, at one time or another, a cat skull (found in a field), a dessicated snake (found in a suitcase, wife was NOT amused), and a goat skull (found on an uncle’s farm). The goat skull actually went to college with me. I figured I could use all the brains I could get, dried or not. He ended up being the mascot for our intra-mural football team, the Wounded Rhinos.
Quite easy, you put them in your backpack. Seriously, the two bones are less than a foot long. So, it’s easily hidden.
Brandocet: I see how it is. You collect bones and it’s vaguely creepy, but if you collect fossils it’s a cool thing, right?
This causes me to wonder, why do people find skeletons of things creepy, but when they’re fossilized, or shells, people don’t see it that way? Is it because the bones were once inside the animal?
Anyway, someone came up with the idea that since we were a science class maybe we should collect as many bones as possible and reconstruct the cow. Not sure how easy that would have been. The next time I go out, I aim to collect one of the jaw bones (with the teeth intact!).
We have 2 horse skulls in our apartment. I once recovered what I believe to be is part of a phalange from an archaeological rescue project I was working on.
As a teenager a friend and I found a cat skeleton in a field with the remains of a decomposed burlap bag around it. I took the skull home and bleached it and it hung on my wall with my knife collection for a few years. In the same field the next summer we found a dead dog and watched it progress from alive looking to mostly bones over the course of the summer. Very cool.
Also had a cow skull… came from my dad, well not literaly. There is still to this day a real human skull in my parents basement. Also there are boxes upon boxes of all different types of skulls as well… from avian and reptilian to mammalian… from shrew to cow in size. Name a common animal, the skull is probably there. I get to inherit it all.
Concerning the cat skull, you will be surprised. Fill a bowl with Bleach. Drop in said skull. few days later, it’ll be clean and white. I’d bleach it again, though.
I did that as a kid, in much the same circumstance that you are in. I could really see a lot of detail. Although it was extremely nasty, the end result was very educational.
For some odd reason, I couldnt find the skeleton of the cat in the place i swore I buried it! Not sure if some animal dug it up, and then neatly placed the sand back where it was and planted weeds on top or what. Maybe I didnt dig deep enough (didnt want the dog diging it up and well…eating the corpse).
Oh, and I’m bleaching the cow bones. They had this reddish and black discoloration, so I want to see if I can get them bright white. Plus, the bleach will probably kill anything trying to grow in or on the bones (like algae)
(yes, I am morbid )