It’s best to let the room air out before entering. Boxes of plastic bags line the shelves of this old garage. In the center are two glass fish tanks covered with a plastic tarp and the musky animal scent grows stronger as you rip it off to reveal the specimen: an arctic fox. With flesh stripped away by hundreds of beetles, the bones will soon be ready for examination by Pat O’Grady, one of the curators of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s many collections.
This is just one of the many ways the curators of the various museum collections obtain and prepare their specimens for study. Students at the University of Oregon are allowed to assist researchers in their preparations through various volunteer programs.
The museum owns several collections comprised of various fossils, rocks and bones, all used for research by the museum and the geology and anthropology departments. While all these collections are with the museum, each is maintained by different departments. The bones are either obtained on archaeological digs or donated by groups such as U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, O’Grady said.
When O’Grady receives an animal for the collection, he and his student volunteers, remove the fur or feathers form the carcass along with several of the internal organs. He then places it in a glass container and has his colony of beetles do the rest.
Madonna Moss’s museum collection on wildlife of the northwest coast, like O’Grady’s collection, uses bones to help identify specimens found on various digs.
These bones enlighten researchers about animal migration due to climate change or what hunter gatherer societies consumed.
A great way specimens are unearthed are when natural disasters occur, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, Moss said.
“We can learn things about animal distribution that biologist don’t know,” said Moss.
Moss collects soil samples from locations, such as digs in Alaska, and uses a screening technique to locate small fish bones that otherwise would be lost. Students help to identify the bones and label them.
For animals that are larger, they are handed over to Frances White with the Primate Osteology Research Lab for preparation. Students and researchers use a crock pot like device to boil the animal’s flesh in order to make it easier to remove from bones. The lab has even worked with a cougar carcass, which got the lab many complaints from people in the hallway due to the smell, said White.
“It’s just a smelly, smelly, job,” said Moss.
Moss’s collection has over 500 bones and is stored in her lab at the anthropology department, while O’Grady‘s is stored in an unusual place. His collection of 15,000 specimens of mammal and bird bones is stored in what used to be a house before it came under university ownership. A copy machine resides in what used to be the kitchen said O’Grady.
“I love this place,” said O’Grady.
Students who are interested in animal anatomy can volunteer at any one of these collections and labs. Email the collections curator for more information on how to get involved.