Re: chicken bones and emu tracks

[tidwell@ix.netcom.com]

On 09/18/98 12:20:55 Ralph Miller III wrote:
>
>
>First, I would like to know how to clean and prepare chicken bones from 
the
>basic fryer so that they can be assembled into a mounted skeleton, one 
that
>won't attract flies and vermin.  Have any list members attempted this? 
>What are the pros and cons of bleaching?  I am entertaining the idea of
>preparing such a mount in order to compare and contrast the skeleton of
>_Gallus_ with that of a non-avian theropod.
>

I have prepared several turkey skeletal mounts from my Thanksgiving meal.  
I boil the bones for a few hours in a pot containing water and a LOW 
SUDSING dish washer detergent.  The detergent helps break down the 
cartaledge and reduces the boiling time.  The bones are then bleached with 
a dilute solution, and coated with Vinca - a hardner used in our prep lab.

This has worked well in the past.  The mounts were made to demonstrate the 
biomechanics involved in mounting theropod dinos, for a class taught by Ken 
Carpenter.  We found that using chicken skeletons often produced poor 
results, as most chickens from the grocery store are fairly young. Often 
the joints are poorly formed, being composed of mostly carteledge, which of 
course, cooks off.  The turkeys proved to be of sturdier stock. 

One major difficulty is obtaining a head and the lower legs and feet.  
These proved almost impossible to obtain.

Hope this helped,
Virginia Tidwell