Toothy snakes

Even though I'm mostly working on fish stuff these days, I'm still working with herps sometimes which were the focus of my collecting interest when I first started cleaning skulls and skeletons. Among these, I've always been especially drawn to groups such as crocodilians, varanids and boids. I've always loved constrictor snakes and I currently have two live pythons at home, so I love them both live and skeletonized. As they're popular as pets, a lot of people are breeding a huge variety of species, so it's not that hard to get some captive bred specimens to work on, and due to their size, they can make very impressive specimens.

My two roommates: Otto (Python regius) and Raoul (Morelia bredli). Pictures are a bit old so they're a bit larger now. And yes, I love silly names.

Two species in particular have always attracted my attention for a variety of reasons: the green tree python and the emerald boa. First, they are absolutely beautiful snakes and make up a really cool example of convergent evolution. They're pretty high maintenance in captivity though, and quick biters as well, so never considered getting some live ones. Another thing they share is a fantastic looking skull.

 Emerald boa skull (Corallus caninus)

Green tree python skull (Morelia viridis)

Although they don't grow to very large sizes, they share the longest teeth found in non-venomous snakes. You just don't want to get bitten by one of these guys.

Fishy bits

Quick update on the blacktip (here)! I'm finally getting there. Still have to clean about half of the gills, but otherwise all pieces are cleaned, whitened, and most are dried already. I should have everything clean and dry by the end of the month so I can start putting the shark back together.

Dorsal and pectoral fins. As with the smooth-hound skeleton, I decided to keep the skin on most of the fins to protect the ceratotrichia.

Caudal fin, I used the same approach here.

And a couple of pictures from other projects:

Three catsharks (Scyliorhinus canicula) skulls in the cleaning process.

Degreasing a black grouper sull (Mycteroperca bonaci). This guy is incredibly greasy and will probably require multiple acetone soaks before whitening and final assembly.