How to make pet specimens?
The tools and methods needed to make various specimens are described as follows. 1. Stripping tool: scalpels, dissecting scissors, bone scissors, long tweezers (with sharp tips and no serrated inside at the front end), dissecting disks or plastic sheets, thin lead wire or bamboo chopsticks, brain spoon (take a piece of lead wire, the front end of which is crushed and bent into a spoon shape), needles, thread, cotton, bamboo wire, arsenic trioxide and alum, and mix them to make the preservative. 2. Before measuring the specimen, it is an essential step to measure the relevant parts of the specimen, and only by obtaining accurate data can the species be better identified. Measuring tools and articles include steel tape measure, ruler, label and collection book. The measurement includes the following items (Figure 3- 1). Weight: the total weight of an animal's body; Body length: snout to anus, snout to tail base of large animals; Tail length: the length from tail root to tail end (except tail hair); Length of hind foot: from the last end of tarsal joint to the front end of foot (except claw), ungulates should measure the front end of hoof; Ear length: the length from the base to the top of the ear shell (except the tufts). Large mammals also need to measure shoulder height (from the midline of the shoulder back to the front fingertip), chest circumference (the maximum circumference of the chest behind the front leg), waist circumference (the minimum circumference of the front waist of the rear leg) and hip height (from the midline of the hip back to the toe tip of the rear toe) (Figure 3-2). 3. Making animal specimens (1) Small animal specimens can be divided into fake peeled specimens for scientific research and ecological specimens for teaching and exhibition. ① Skinning the fake specimen (taking rats as an example) Put the rat corpse on the dissecting disc and plastic cloth, and cut the skin along the front of anus in the middle of abdomen to the back of sternum with a scalpel. Don't use too much force during the operation, so as not to cut the abdominal cavity and pollute the fur. Then use the back of a knife or tweezers to separate the skin and muscles connected with the incision and the hind legs, push the hind legs to the incision respectively, cut the knee joint and remove the muscles on the calf (Figure 3-3a). Peel off the muscles around the back, then cut off the joint of genitalia, rectum and skin, clean up the connective tissue around the caudal base, hold the caudal base with your left hand, and slowly pull the caudal vertebra up with your right hand until it is completely pulled out (Figure 3-3b), continue to peel it off to the forelimbs, cut it off at the elbow joint, peel it off to the head after removing the muscles, and attach the skull to the ear with a scalpel. When cutting or cutting the ear root to the eye, you can see a layer of white omentum. When peeling off the upper and lower lips, first cut off the cartilage at the tip of the nose, and then peel off the lower lip with a scalpel. At this point, the skin and the body have been separated, the fat in the skin and the muscles attached to the skin are removed, the antiseptic is evenly coated, a little cotton is wrapped around the bones of the limbs to replace the original muscles, and then the mouse skin is turned over to form a straight tube with the skin facing outwards. Fill and cut the 1 bamboo pseudococcyx, which is slightly thinner and smoother than the original coccyx, or make a pseudotail by tightly winding cotton with lead wire, and insert it into the tail of rats. The pseudotail is longer than the original tail and reaches the abdominal cavity 1/2, so that the tail can be fixed and the whole body can be supported. Then, the fluffy cotton is kneaded into a shape that is thin at the front and thick at the back, the front end of the cotton is clamped with big tweezers, and then it is tightly inserted into the head from the opening, and then the fluffy cotton is properly filled in the insufficient parts of limbs and trunk. At this point, the cut coccyx should be close to the cotton in the abdomen, so that the coccyx does not become warped. When sewing the incision, the specimen should be put straight and the needle should be sewn from the inside out. The quality of plastic surgery and fixed specimen making has a great relationship with plastic surgery. During plastic surgery, the specimen should be placed horizontally on the table, with the head facing left, the front legs retracted, the palm side down, the rear legs straight, the sole side up, and the tail flat, and cotton should be picked up with tweezers to look like a slightly convex eyeball. Hair should be neat, ears should be upright, head should be slightly pointed, and hips should be arched (Figure 3-4). The label is attached to the right foot, the specimen is placed on the fixing plate, and the limbs are fixed with pins. After drying in the shade, the fake peeled specimen was made. (2) The ecological specimens of museums, teaching and other units often make animal specimens into life postures for popular science. The method of stripping is basically the same as that of pseudo-stripping specimens. When filling, only lead wire (steel bar or steel plate for large animals) is needed to support its limbs. The type of lead wire used depends on the size of the animal itself. The head, limbs and tail are supported by 1 wire respectively. The lead wire of the head is first rolled with cotton into the same thickness and length as the original muscle of the neck, and one end is fixed on the skull. You can also keep the original skull. In addition, the 1 lead was inserted into the limb from the sole of the foot along the posterior side of the limb bone, leaving a section for fixation. Lead wire is bent along the bones of the limbs and tied to the bones with thread. It is still necessary to add cotton to the limbs to replace the original muscles. The coccyx should not be made of bamboo, but must be made of lead wire in various postures. (2) Specimen making of medium-sized mammals Generally, medium-sized mammals refer to weasels such as rabbits, marmots, giant squirrels and weasels. The production method is basically the same as that of small mammals. Because this specimen is relatively large, the opening of the abdomen is slightly larger. When filling the body with bamboo filaments, a bamboo stick is needed to support the body. (3) Specimen making of large mammals generally refers to tigers, leopards, wild boar, deer, etc. And there are generally two methods of making, ecological specimens and preserving skin and skull without filling prosthesis for scientific research. Taking this kind of specimen as an example, it can be made from the root of the tail to the snout and the inside of the limbs. However, when dealing with horned cloven-hoofed animals, it is necessary to open a "ya" mouth between the two horns and the back of the neck, and cut off the skin around the root of the horn; When the angle is large, it needs to be operated on the neck side. In addition, the hooves and claws of the limbs need to stay on the skin.