The Osteology Museum in OKC is run by Skulls Unlimited, which provides mounted skeletons to exhibits all around the country. The science geek in me loves places like this. 🙂

Some photos from a visit:

The museum

Inside the museum

Mourning Dove, showing all the adaptations needed for flight: wings from modified arms, thin lightweight bones, and big breast keel for anchoring flight muscles

Armadillo. The shell is made from small plates of bone in the skin.

Cheetah, showing the flexibility in the spine that allows it to make long strides and reach great speeds

Humpback Whale. This skeleton took years to clean and mount.

King Cobra. Cobras have short fixed fangs.

Western Diamondback rattlesnake. Vipers have long fangs that fold up against the roof of the mouth.

Tasmanian Wolf. it is actually a marsupial and not a wolf at all.

Duck-billed Platypus. The “bill” is completely different than a bird’s beak.

Steller’s Sea Cow. Now extinct.

Javan Rhino. Nearly extinct.

Illustrating the differences between a male and female pelvis

Red Bellied Piranha

Flamingo