Penguin Skeletons.
Wiki article on the branch in Florida.
Two Museums of Skeletons, one in Oklahoma, their second in Florida, specialising in animals, birds, fish, insects and human skulls and skeletons. You can look, buy or sell a skull. Animal or human. Yup. You heard right. Read on.
My discovery of this Museum of Skeletons in Oklahoma came about in a roundabout way. On Facebook I was sent a video of a man holding a can of beer which was being sipped by a fish with long whiskers coming out of its mouth. I asked what it was and the reply was a catfish.
Of course, having visited the US and lived there I know about catfish. They are famously bottom feeders, or at least some of them are. As a person who is allergic to shellfish, I am wary of fish which feed on the bottom floor on dead creatures which drift down and decay. Cruel as it sounds, eating a live fish is healthier for the fish - or at least for the human who eats the fish which eats dead fish. maybe that's why we eat pigeons but not vultures.
Anyway, let's move on with the story of my search. I was amazed by the number of new words I learned whilst reading about the catfish. Their whiskers are called barbels.
Wikipedia seems to have much improved since the early days when you had too look up all the words you did not know in the dictionary. Wikipedia now has an article on every long word mentioned and when you click on the word you go straight to the definition.
The words I learned to recognize were those for:
barbels
dimorphism - difference in the males and females beyond just the frequently visible ones of sex organs.
Obvious differences - such as breasts in the female of mammals. (Mammary meaning breast or bulbous bits with nibble so the baby can suck milk. Remember m for mammary, milk and mother).
Dimorphism - the ones you will recognize is the peacock with huge plumage to attract the plan coloured peahen.
Skeletons of female (left) and Male (right) black-casqued hornbills (Ceratogymna atrata). The difference between the sexes is apparent in the casque on the top of their bill. This pair is on display at the Museum of Osteology.Wiki article on sexual dimorphism.
Reading about dimorphism, I came across a picture of the skeleton of a bird, showing
the protrusion above the beak, obvious on the skeleton.
The photo was of an exhibit in the museum of skeletons. Oklahoma. USA>
I was very excited. First because the word skeleton has associations of horror and detective work. Secondly because Oklahoma is a bit of a blank on my list of states to visit in the USA. It is associated strongly with the song Oklahoma, yet no tourist attraction springs suddenly into my mind.
On second thoughts, I was not so thrilled with the idea of a museum on skeletons. The giant skeleton of the dinosaur in the entrance hall of the Museum of Natural History in London never moved me as much as the children who were impressed with its size - until it was moved, when I wanted it back. Now they have a whale.
Most museums of natural history have stuffed animals which are still found, just a skeleton of rarer and extinct species. I think immediately of the dodo. (Which has now been found on a remote place somewhere like Indonesia and its importance resurrected by being bred in a zoo, if I remember rightly. Skeletons of humans are much more exciting. However, there is an anti-skeleton movement regarding humans. Some people want all skeletons buried out of respect for the dead.
Respecting the Dead
Frankly, when I am dead I would much rather be sitting up and dressed or in a glass case to be admired, rather, than buried in the dark underground, deteriorating further, daily getting ever less likely to have DNA which could be retrieved to identify me and resurrect me.
If your interest is in forensics, solving crime, detection, police museums abound worldwide. I first discovered the joy of police museums and detection in solving crimes in Hong Kong.
The words police and prison may be scary, just like the word skeleton. But I love the Discovery Channel and I am collecting a list of museums connected to Skeletons, forensics and police.
I shall expand this post with more websites and photos during the next 24 hours.
The Florida branch shop. Photo from wiki.
Meanwhile, from their website I found these items in their shop:
Tee-shirts in black or blue
Books about bones of bears and other animals
Bracelets, including bright red ball shape beads, my favourite, modestly priced at about two US dollars.
Acrylics with butterflies and insects embedded.
A tea infuser with a floating imitation seahorse stirrer
..................
Here's another branch in Florida
| Established | 2015 |
|---|---|
| Location | 8441 International Drive Ste 250, Orlando, Florida 32819, United States |
| Coordinates | 28.442805°N 81.469148°W |
| Type | Natural History Museum Attraction |
| Owner | Jay Villemarette |
| Website | skeletonmuseum |
Sell Us Your Skull
Sell us your skull, they say.
Ah - they don't mean leaving them your own. They mean one you own.
They list human and animal. I presume research centres and vets and hospitals and natural history museums often have old items they want to dispose of or new ones they would like to add to their collections, but I presume roadkill, items dying in your garden, of not protected species, maybe the pet buried in your garden,
Now, where did you put grandma?
Looking at their shop, I can see the sources. You can buy a ram's head with horns, or a domestic goat skull. So people who have herds of animals must every so often have one dying from disease or old age, leaving skull.
A real human skull or skeleton is quite pricey, over 1000 US dollars. But for under 100 dollars you could buy an ornament from the Day of the Dead. Or just under ten dollars for a little Xmas tree ornament showing two cute brass giraffe skeletons. You can also have your trophy cleaned and mounted for educational purposes.
Natural History Museum, London, England. Wiki.
Darwin statue. Natural History Museum. London, England. Wiki.
Useful Websiteshttps://skeletonmuseum.com/skeletons-okc.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Osteology
visittheusa.co.uk
visitbritain.com
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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