Ear drums

[Eric R.]

I am currently working on a rabbit, woodchuck and deer skull which are coming along nicely but I am not sure about the ear drums.  They all have them but should I be removing them some how or is it a personal preference?   How are you removing these because they are pretty solid when I pull them from the bugs.  Thanks!

[Cheaha Skull Works]

On the deer I always remove it alot of grease in there you don't have to mess with... I use a ice pic to remove it will come out very easy....

[Southern Bug Works]

If you are using beetles they should take care of it. I never have messed with taken them out.

[Eric R.]

Maybe I am calling it wrong.  It is pretty solid like the everything in the nasal cavity and they don't eat that.

Bradlee, I am asumeing you are removing them before cleaning?

Thanks!

[gator dun]

why do you want to remove them ? they are bone and are part of the skull . the skull will look stupid and incomplete with out them .

[tariadamar]

i leave as many bones as possible on the skull as it all adds to the skull.

[Eric R.]

why do you want to remove them ? they are bone and are part of the skull . the skull will look stupid and incomplete with out them .

I did not say I wanted to removed them, I was asking if it was common practice to remove or leave them.  I can't see in most pictures whether they are intact or not.  Before I started getting into this I had a caribou done and it does not have them, guess I have a stupid skull on the wall which is what I would like to try and avoid doing with someone elses skull.

[Southern Bug Works]

yea i leave the bone part on there i guess that is the drum never thought of it. Yea it wouldn't look right with it gone

[PA]

I don't think you quite understand what an ear drum is. The drum itself is simply the surface stretched over the opening which vibrates and sends sound signals amplified by the ear bones and are interpreted by the brain. In mammals, the drum proper is not ossified. In frogs and some lizards, the surface is slightly ossified and can withstand a dermestid colony and still remain intact. But mammals, I believe, are never ossified or hearing would not really be possible. If you carefully clean mammal skulls you can occasionally find the three ear bones as they are not attached well within the auditory bulla. Usually the bones remain fused when I do find them. Also there are often bones near the external ear that are often freed up. Those that do beavers find them on a regular basis, but I was surprised to find some external bones that were freed up on a tiger skull once.