This is the tail end (sorry) of the re-articulation of an ostrich skeleton. It began when I bought the bird live by falling into a conversation with a farmer- at a farmers market in Boulder- who had one named “Diablo” that kept getting out. I bought him for $150. Took us 4 months to eat it. Took me 2 years to clean, degrease, and mount the bones, including finding charts of an ostrich skeleton and studying re-articulations at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
The skeleton has been in a museum in Morrison CO for the last 6 years while I’ve been traveling. They’ve had it next to a velociraptor skeleton showing skeletal similarities indicating that birds descended from dinosaurs.
I’ll call a few more processors on Monday, Mike. I’m not really doing articulations anymore. It’s kind of a smelly, dirty process and I don’t really have a space to do it. The exception is if I could find a King Cobra over 12’ long, a really big anaconda, or a gaboon viper. I’ve looked, but they’re hard to find without spending a lot of money.
I needed inspectors from Florida to see this post, James. I thought about putting it in “Not for Everyone”, but I didn’t think many inspectors from Florida would see it there.
And you are right Kenton NO ONES SEES ANYTHING IN NOT FOR EVERYBODY. Thats why I get pissed when my posts get moved there or somewhere else because I think things out and put them where I think most will see that would be interested or able to help if I need help. Looking forward to see the monster when done. The snakes will be just plain luck to run into one but I think you chances are great for a gator just based on the time of year alone
Mike, I did the gator call you showed me for my mother (90 yrs old). She laughed and laughed! She’s from Kansas and Colorado. I don’t think she ever expected to hear a gator call in her life!
Thats funny. Next time at a zoo if there is one and it is quiet around, try it out
It works much better on animals in the wild. Glad I could help give Mom a laugh
Thanks John! A big red kangaroo tail would work almost as well, but roo tails don’t get much over 3-4 feet long. With the hide and meat removed the bones can be imported no problem.
They say it’s a 5’ tail, so that should do it. I don’t expect I’ll find one any longer any time soon. Thinking now that I should be looking for a pair of front legs too, since those dinosaurs all had little front legs, and mine just has wing bones.
The ostrich neck vertebrae are too small to support a large head, but a small gator skull would look a lot more like a velociraptor skull than a coyote skull. Maybe a gator skull about 10 inches long?*
