This bone is the humerus of a swan. Although it has been slightly nibbled, the damage reveals a fascinating feature of bird bones.
Bird skeletons are highly adapted for flight; they are lightweight but also strong enough to take the stresses of flying. Many bones in birds, including this one, are pneumatized (have air spaces within them) with a honeycomb structure for increased strength.
A quick poke around sittaeuropaea‘s room….. It is impossible to capture how awesome it is, these are just some random shots in and around his cabinet (plus two piggies). You could literally spend hours going through all the beautiful deads, which is what we did – and didn’t even meet half of them. I guess that means another visit is in order at some point 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
It’s seriously such a great place and every dead is beautiful and has personality and everything is just dkfhnvkdjfvljolifd. So many bones and skulls and plants and books and sorry bye everyone I have a closet to move into
I thought I’d post a photo of my current corvid collection; there’s seven carrion crows, eight eurasian magpies, a jackdaw and a eurasian jay. I’ve got another four carrion crows macerating and two whole eurasian magpies in the freezer. I’d love to have complete skulls from each of the eight corvids found in the UK!
PiraticOctopus 