Bone identification

A mole, a vole or a shrew? What could those bones in your owl pellet possibly be? Download our free bone identification guide to solve the mystery!

This beginners guide to animal bone identification has been written by Chris Faine and is one of a series of introductory guides published by the community archaeology network, Jigsaw. Animal bone is one of, if not the, most commonly recovered finds material from archaeological sites. Identifying the full range of species that you could potentially find

I have fond memories of many lessons in elementary school, but one of the shining highlights was the day us kiddos were each given an owl pellet to dissect. The ugly little grey-brown lumps, the size and shape of stuffed grape leaves, looked a whole lot like any number of small critter scat one might discover on the forest floor, and while they were indeed evidence of wild digestive systems at work, poop they were not. Along with our pellet, we were given tweezers and microscopes, and it…

Each skull has a story to tell. It can tell us what the animal ate, which senses it used to hunt or find food, and whether it was the predator or prey. Through scientific investigation, we can unravel the mysteries in a skull and learn more about the animal when it was alive. To read the story of the skull, you need to be able to identify and analyze the clues left behind. To understand the clues, you need to know the language of skulls. Imagine you are walking through a National Forest and…

The blog of Jake, a fourteen year old bone collector, naturalist and published author from Scotland.

Virginia State Parks - Learn more about what lies beneath the skin,fur and feather of animals!

[Update: Just noticed that when describing the radial features I initially swapped the locations for the styloid process (lateral) and the interosseous crest (medial) for the anterior view of the r…

Lontra Canadensis (River Otter) skeletal system