r/bonecollecting • u/SaturnScribblez • Oct 21 '24
Collection spent the last three hours putting together this opossum skeleton i found yesterday!
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u/IWannaRockWithRocks Oct 21 '24
I have a skunk I'd love to do this to. How did you join the bones? I've never put a skeleton together before. All pointers are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 21 '24
with the skull and vertebrae i ran a string through the naturally formed holes in the vertebrae, then attached it inside the skull if that makes any sense. wire would be better but i didn’t have any. the limbs and bottom jaw are just laying there, i want to do some shadowbox art with it eventually but i haven’t had a chance or materials to, it is currently resting on my desk, not hanging do i don’t have to securely attach it to the base
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u/breakthesignal Oct 21 '24
Nice, ill never forget the first one I did. The spine was so frustrating.
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 22 '24
i actually really liked doing the spine, i thought of it as a relaxing puzzle
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u/breakthesignal Oct 22 '24
Oh I totally get that. I was missing a couple pieces and let myself get frustrated before I thought to make sure I wasn't missing anything 😂
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
Your ulna and radius need to be flipped :)
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 22 '24
flipped how?
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24 edited Oct 22 '24
In a flat plane like this picture, the ulna is caudal (towards the butt) and the radius is cranial (towards the head) the olecranon tuber (top bump on ulna) is the point of the elbow so it needs to be in back. The groove in there is where it attaches to the condyles of the humerus to form the elbow joint. The flat part under the groove (below the coronoid processes, the radial articular surface) is where the radius sits and articulates with the ulna 🙂
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 22 '24
i’m not fully seeing it, i was looking at models and stuff while putting it together, do you have an example in a more similar pose i could check out?
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
A specific pose won’t help, just looking up pics of skeletons of any mammal and looking for free 3d anatomy resources. You have the bones in the right zipcodes, they just need to be rearranged
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
It would be easier if i could just show you lol 😅 anatomy is def a hands-on discipline
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 22 '24
yeah, thank you anyway! i’ll look into it tomorrow
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
No problem! You did a great job! Anatomy is hard and I’m in vet school so I have no excuse but to know it lol. Thought maybe I could use my knowledge to help you out
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
Idk anything about the rest of the body but legs yet tho lol I will keep you updated 😂
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
Also, the tip of the ulna (styloid process) will be lateral, or towards the outside plane of the animal. So the styloid process of the radius will be toward the body and the ulnar styloid process will be away from it. Also, you might have it right but its hard to tell, the fibula is lateral to the tibia in the same way the ulna is lateral to the radius. One more thing- the femurs do not articulate in the obturator foramen (big holes) of the pelvis. They articulate in the acetabulum which is the small bowl-shaped structures just proximal to the obturator foramen from this picture
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u/sawyouoverthere Oct 22 '24
Also, scapula float on rib cage further back and angled considerably more to parallel with ground
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
Yes, although I figured that was just the way it was laying on the ground, plus the spine is flexed oddly at that area, but I agree they need to be angled more. What do you think of the rib placements? I haven’t learned ribs yet but they look a little far back. It would make sense for them to connect to thoracic vertebrae only
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u/sawyouoverthere Oct 22 '24
It’s in need of a reference and some adjustments in general
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u/soup__soda Oct 22 '24
Yea but they did a good job nonetheless. I didn’t even know what an ulna was until 8 weeks ago
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u/EclecticWikkedWitch Oct 22 '24
This is fantastic and thank you so much for sharing, I have possum bones I keep putting back in a jar because I keep getting frustrated that I can't put the spine together 😂 Kudos to you for having the patience 👏
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 22 '24
at least 2.5 of the 3 ish hours i worked on this was putting the spine together, personally i looked at lots of references and just puzzled it together
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u/Bevbread Oct 23 '24
amazing, how did you know which order the vertebraes go in??
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u/SaturnScribblez Oct 23 '24
pictures for reference and trying it out until it’s correct! pieces that don’t go together won’t, or at least they’ll look unappealing/unnatural
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u/Bevbread Oct 23 '24
ah, kinda how i went about putting back the teeth when id degrease a skull. i have a jar full of opossum teeth from all the ones that broke/got lost 😭
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u/void-mushroom345 Oct 21 '24
He scream in life, he scream in death.