# I found a skull. How do i clean it?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-skull-how-do-i-clean-it/93068>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 13, 2001, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-skull-how-do-i-clean-it/93068 "2001-11-13T04:20:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-skull-how-do-i-clean-it/93068/21 "2001-11-13T09:01:13Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dave Stewart \*  
> **What is it? A wolverine-type thing?**

It’s a mustelid, which puts it in the same class as weasels, stoats, skunks, racoons, ferrets, polecats, otters, badgers, civets and, yes, wolverines.

From the generic name, it seems to be a kind of marten (the pine marten is martes martes).

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-skull-how-do-i-clean-it/93068/22 "2001-11-13T14:18:20Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by hibernicus \*  
> \*\*It’s a mustelid, which puts it in the same class as weasels, stoats, skunks, racoons, ferrets, polecats, otters, badgers, civets and, yes, wolverines.
> 
> From the generic name, it seems to be a kind of marten (the pine marten is martes martes). \*\*

Mustelids don’t include raccoons (Procyonidae) or civets (Viverridae), but otherwise you got it. The Fisher is like a very big marten but specializes on porcupines rather than squirrels. It’s intermediate in size between a marten and a wolverine.

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**Author:** ![dono](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e0b2c6/32.png) [@dono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dono)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-skull-how-do-i-clean-it/93068/23 "2001-11-13T17:37:46Z")

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I used to know a skull collector. He probably had fifty different skulls in his basement. Weird guy (in other ways, too.)

I went over to his place once while he was on the front lawn “cookin’”, as he put it. He had a 55-gallon drum on an open fire. He poked into the hellbroth with his stick and pulled out one of his prizes, with flesh and fur still hanging off it. He got a big kick out of my reaction. (Urp! There goes lunch!)

After they were boiled clean (which takes a long time, I gather), he would put them in the sun to dry out and bleach for a few days.

The only data point I have to add is that the stench from the “cookin’” is ungodly. It would make a hyena vomit. He would arrange the pot so that the breeze would carry across his least-favorite neighbor’s house. This is not something you want to try on the kitchen stove.

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