Hello everyone.
My brother is a palaeontologist specialising in mammals, and more specifically the evolution of their joints. He’s recently decided that he wants to start putting together an ossuary, and has asked that if I even happen to shoot a muntjac or CWD, I let him have all the bones. As you know, these two species (excitingly referred to as “sabre-toothed cervidae” by Dr Pine Marten Junior) are very primitive, so they’re of more interest to him than roe for instance. Now this is a bit tricky as it involves completely deboning the carcass, but on the other hand, after having lunch at my place a fortnight ago and inspecting the haunch of venison, he’s declared that the way I jointed it met his exacting standards, so that’s fine. Although cooking destroys the DNA apparently, but there’s still be loads of bones left for that. Anyway, I said that this was fine my me as long as he came and helped with the delicate butchery required, and even more specifically, since he intends to preserve the entire skeleton for cataloguing and measuring purposes, he could sort the skull out for me. He’s happy to do that, however given his interest, he really doesn’t want to cut any skulls, although he says I can have it back when he’s finished measuring and recording it.
So my question is at this stage, how would you go about mounting and displaying an entire muntjac skull, or at least the top half of it (my brother can have the lower jaw)? I suppose it may help with displaying the canine teeth too if it was elevated in some way from the shield or support. Any suggestions welcome.
My brother is a palaeontologist specialising in mammals, and more specifically the evolution of their joints. He’s recently decided that he wants to start putting together an ossuary, and has asked that if I even happen to shoot a muntjac or CWD, I let him have all the bones. As you know, these two species (excitingly referred to as “sabre-toothed cervidae” by Dr Pine Marten Junior) are very primitive, so they’re of more interest to him than roe for instance. Now this is a bit tricky as it involves completely deboning the carcass, but on the other hand, after having lunch at my place a fortnight ago and inspecting the haunch of venison, he’s declared that the way I jointed it met his exacting standards, so that’s fine. Although cooking destroys the DNA apparently, but there’s still be loads of bones left for that. Anyway, I said that this was fine my me as long as he came and helped with the delicate butchery required, and even more specifically, since he intends to preserve the entire skeleton for cataloguing and measuring purposes, he could sort the skull out for me. He’s happy to do that, however given his interest, he really doesn’t want to cut any skulls, although he says I can have it back when he’s finished measuring and recording it.
So my question is at this stage, how would you go about mounting and displaying an entire muntjac skull, or at least the top half of it (my brother can have the lower jaw)? I suppose it may help with displaying the canine teeth too if it was elevated in some way from the shield or support. Any suggestions welcome.