I am doing an archeological dig with my Biology Class where we are exhuming an adult African Elephant. The bones are estimated to weigh over 1000 lbs. The skull along with tusks over 150 lbs. These bones will need to be cleaned and decreased but as you can tell I will need a large amount of solvent for this project. I need something environmentally safe, and non biohazardous. Although acetone would be best, it is not an option due to the safety issues the amount required for this task. I have read other articles in other forums about skull decreasing and was wondering what might work best for my project and would it destroy the tusks of this elephant during the decreasing process?
Cost will also be a factor since we are a public high school on a limited budget.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
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Taking such things into consideration such as safety, cost etc....
Use Rittels Super SOlvent if it is not cost prohibitive. It gets used at 2 oz per gallon of water. Otherwise use a clear, colourless grease cutting dish detergent like clear Dawn...
Note that degreasing may take a month or longer. You can monitor your progress with water changes. As the water gets loaded with oils etc it will turn a dingy greyish brown. When the water ceases getting dirty - you know the bones are relatively clean.
Hope that helps =)
Yep its going to cost either way, you may want to look at commercial dish detergents.
Even Laundry detergents like Tide will work
By bleaching John is referring to an oxygen bleach for whitening I would assume.. it is safer than chlorinated bleach which can irreversibly harm the bone. Hydrogen Peroxide is a very common type of oxygenated bleach type product and will also aid in disinfection if that is a conern.