Chameleon skeletons

[Alexl]

You got such lots of pretty living chameleon pictures, so I decided to start a thread with pretty dead ones I've prepared and collected the last half year (and yes, I've got living chameleons, too ). Enjoy ...and maybe you'll learn about their anatomy.

Trioceros quadricornis quadricornis male, without hyoid apparatus yet (I added it later on), my absolute favorite

Chamaeleo calyptratus male

Chamaeleo calyptratus, female

Calumma parsonii, young female

Furcifer lateralis, male, my second favorite

Furcifer lateralis, male

Furcifer pardalis, young little female with stomatitis on right mandible

Furcifer pardalis, young little female with stomatitis on right mandible

Kinyongia tavetana, male with not so nice ribs and column due to somewhat bad bone calcification

 

[DavidBuchan]

Nice. Did you collect them like that or did you pose them yourself? Good work

 

[aris]

Don't sell to this guy any of your chameleons!!!

 

[Psychodrake]

This is fascinating, thank you for posting them.

 

[mickeyratfink]

Love these pics Alexl!!

Are they hard to keep?

What are you feeding them?

The last one looked a bit underweight!! LOL!!

Fascinating photos.

 

[Damus]

Don't sell to this guy any of your chameleons!!!

This made me LOL

 

[Cody1771]

do you do the reconstruction yourself? im assuming so to get such a collection. how do you go abotu doing it and how to you "prep" the bones prior? how do you stick them together?

 

[Txherp]

I LOVE skeletons, those look fantastic! I have always wanted to do that sort of stuff.

 

[sdheli420]

if you dont mind me asking where did you get so many cham skeletons? hopefully they wherent used in the name of "art" like what Katinka Simonse (sicko...) does....

they are very interesting..should be in museams! never seen so many chameleon skeletons, i turned my computer away from my lil guys!!

 

[Hoj]

those are pretty kool

 

[zerpda]

way cool

Those are the coolest things I've ever seen done. So come on tell us all, I didn't see your answer. Did you put them together yourself? Everything is so clean an in perfect position.

 

[Sodbuster]

Those are wicked rad. How did you get them all? I want some for sure.

 

[KarmaChameleon1337]

When my Karma dies I want to get his bones put together and cured to have him forever.

 

[PeriTanz]

I am so glad you did this because my friend and i have been trying to figure out their skeletal structure for a while and could find almost no pix!. I'm curious for your answers also... and the ages of those chams at death??

 

[PeriTanz]

I have been wondering if there bones are like humans and get harder as they develop? sans mbd

 

[MATT2504]

They look amazing

 

[Alexl]

Thanks for all your postings, I'll try to answer alle the questions I've read. If there were some more, feel free to ask. Hope my english isn't that bad to make my point.

Nice. Did you collect them like that or did you pose them yourself?

I received them as frozen dead chameleon bodies and prepared or posed them all myself. It's not possible to get a chameleon skeleton in Germany without having the dead chameleon before. I phoned lots of professionals, but noone was selling a chameleon skeleton (okay, I didn't really want to buy one, but I was curious about the price ).

Don't sell to this guy any of your chameleons!!!

Haha...I would say the same if I were you

But...
1. I'm not a guy, I'm a female.
2. All these chameleons above weren't mine until death. Just to pacify you.

Are they hard to keep?

What are you feeding them?

They're quite simple in captivity, but I never saw a wild one. Don't need lots of food, don't care about temperature or lightning or even other fellows around them. Sadly they're somewhat quiet and don't move a lot, but that's the only point I dislike.

do you do the reconstruction yourself? im assuming so to get such a collection. how do you go abotu doing it and how to you "prep" the bones prior? how do you stick them together?

Yes, I do. I'm preparing them with hydrogen peroxide (30%), scalpels, needles and much patience. Earlier I tried to let a corn snake skeleton getting cleaned by insects, but they ate most of the ribs, too... so now I do it this way and it works fine without damages. I stick them together with a special jewelry glue at the moment. I don't have any long lasting experiences with this glue, 'til now it seems to fix it best and skeletons keep staying without problems for almost a year now.

if you dont mind me asking where did you get so many cham skeletons? hopefully they wherent used in the name of "art" like what Katinka Simonse (sicko...) does....

I don't know who this woman is, but I really assure you all these chameleons had good lifes and died by illness or euthanasia as time had come. They're from friends of mine and I know they had good homes. This has nothing to do with art or exhibiton objects, it's some way of science or education. I've learned a lot from every chameleon I dissected and I'm sure this can help few of my future patients. And of cause I enjoy other keepers being able to get informations or see skeletons they won't have the chance to get/see otherwise.

 

[sandrachameleon]

Thank you for posting your photos. Very interesting.

 

[Old World]

Very interesting thread. I learned a lot of info on skeletal structures of various chams. Thank you very much for sharing! Many people may be interested in your talent to preserve the memory of their scaly loved ones...but not me I don't think I could see my cherished, deceased chams in that way!

 

[tecate]

awesome...how did the female parsons die? musta beena sad day