Whats your fav animal

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Owl Pellets

Yesterday, I dissected an owl pellet with tweezers. It looked like a big, furry meatball and had bones in it. I found two skulls -- one was a bird and one was a rodent. We found vertebra, tiny ribs, jaw bones and a whole bunch of other bones. It was fun and cool.
Barn Owl pellet closeup - Picture 6 of 8 in Digestion
An owl pellet is what an owl spits up. It is all the stuff that they can't digest.

My mom bleached the bones and then dropped it all over. We wanted to put it together like a puzzle, but I think she lost some.

6 comments:

Melissa (Melgurl) said...

That is so cool in a super gross way.

Homeschooled Kid said...

That is cool it would of been fun to put it together again :)

eirenee said...

Gross and yet, eerily fascinating. :-) I bet it was right up your alley, Richard! I dissected a worm and a frog once. The frog was the grosser of the two because we had to break it's jaw by bending it all the way back till it made a loud pop and the bones popped out of it's skin. See, I have gross stories too. :-)

Melissa (Melgurl) said...

ewwww

Unknown said...

I remember dissecting one at the Exploratorium in S.F. with Michael. We had only one rodent's parts to piece back together. My junior high worm and frog dissection left me with a horrible memory of a gall bladder exploding liquid out. Don't think I'll be doing that at home.

Glad you had such a bountiful owl pellet!

Angel said...

You found a lot of things in your owl pellet. Cool science project!