Recent content by Galemys

Latest addition: Chiffchaff, a traffic victim found on holiday in Spain. Cheers, Tom

Great collection, keep them coming! Is that a fox(?) In the background & some boar tusks on the left? What species are the smaller bird skulls? Sparrow/finch? I really like the lego dodo! One of my favourite birds. Cheers, Tom

As promised some more pics of the asp viper skull and its preparation. Not visible is that one of the lower jaw halfs disintegrated in to its 2 components that had to be glued together again. Both sides of the upper jaw contained 3 fangs. Cheers, Tom PS @JonathanD: thanks for...

Thank's for the kind words Jonathan! Both sides of the skull had multiple fangs, some were hidden in the gum/cartilage and were only revealed in the late stages of the preparation process. I'll add some close ups later this week. @jonathan: could you tell by the initial pictures if this was a...

After some 3D-puzzling with all the loose bony fragments, this is the finalised asp viper skull: Cheers, Tom

A short holiday in the Auvergne region, France, delivered an unexpected present...a freshly killed asp viper (Vipera aspis)! It was presumably the victim of a cat because of the location (on top of stone wall) and the mortal wound (crushed neck). I cut off the head and took it with me back to...

After rotting, cleaning & bleaching here's how the barn owl skull turned out: There's small bones connecting the lower jaw to the skull missing in the pictures (too much hassle to keep them in place for the pics). The beak is much longer than you would expect from seeing a live bird! The...

As promised, some pics. End result will take some time... Cheers, Tom

Upcoming project: a beautiful dead barn owl. No external damage, only some blood on the beak. It turned out to be a female (judged by the broad black bands on the primaries). It was underweight (222 grams, it should be around 300) and very skinny. I collected the head and skinned it to preserve...

Please share your pics! I have found three stoat roadkills; all had a crushed skull as well... Badger, porpoise, raven, any bird of prey, crossbill & avocet are high on my wishlist... Cheers, Tom

New addition, a razorbill, without and with its keratin bill sheaths: Cheers, Tom

I found the brass parts in my fathers shed, I am wondering too what they are normally used for (my father doesn 't know either...) Cheers, Tom

Common murre: The insertions above the eye are for specialized glands that secrete excess salt (it is a seabird). and great crested grebe: Cheers, Tom

New additions: Woodcock, a window victim View from above Great cormorant, from a freshly beached specimen. The bony spike on the back of the head ('os nuchalis'), flexibly attached by a bit of cartilage, is a unique feature of cormorants & darters. It gives extra attachment for the beak...

After buying the antique fire piston I wanted to try and make a bone fire piston myself and found a piece of cow metacarpal bone in the pet shop. The bone wall was not thick enough to make a piston out of but I made a bone rod to match a small brass piston. It took a lot of splitting, carving...