| The Boneman.com |
| The Turtle Project |
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| URL: http://www.theboneman.com Boneman Last Update: September 4, 2011 copyright 2005 by Lee Post illustrations by Lee post |
| site created and maintained by Merry Web Designs copyright 2005 |
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| Many years ago I received an inquiry from a lady on the East Coast who had found a turtle skeleton on a beach off the shores of Virginia. She wanted to assemble it, and I sent her what illustrations I had on sea turtle skeletons--End of story. . . . Until. . . This spring I got emails from this same person asking, essentially, if she showed up in Alaska with the turtle skeleton, would there be a time I could articulate it or help her articulate it? It was going to be a busy summer for me, but I had one week in August that could conceivably work. I wasn't totally confident I would want to invite a total stranger to work with me for a week. While I've never had a disastrous project due to personality issues, there is always a first time. After hearing how attached this person was to those bones (this was her baby), combined with her determination to get the skeleton assembled, I invited her to come. Joanie Sarno, a science teacher from New Jersey, made arrangements, showed up, and in five extended days, we got the turtle skeleton assembled. This had to be the most difficult skeleton I've ever worked on! The bones were weird. Many of the pieces did not match anything I am familiar with in any other animal skeletons I have done! Some of the bones float - other bone sections articulate to each other but it wasn't obvious how they attached to the rest of the skeleton! The upper shell was composed of about 45 pieces. Some of those pieces fastened to 4 - 6 other bones. Some of the big shell sections were warped and a few pieces were totally missing. Joanie had fabricated many of the missing pieces ahead of time, others were sculpted during the assembly. It helped a lot that Joanie had become so intimately familiar with the individual bones. She had previously made a good attempt at assembling this on her own before giving up and taking it back apart. When the turtle (which we keyed out to be a loggerhead sea turtle) was completed, we took it to the bookstore where I work, and it immediately attracted a crowd. One observer asked, with all seriousness, if we were going to let it go on the beach. . .No . . . But we did take it for a romp on an Alaskan beach before we crated it up to be sent back to New Jersey where it will be displayed in Joanie's school. The turtle is swimming on display at the William Davies Middle School in Mays Landing, New Jersey. Joanie did an extremely good job working on this turtle skeleton (for which she has a federal permit for educational purposes) considering that many of the pieces were missing. May enthusiasm like hers never end! This was my main bone project of this summer (2011). Alaskan summers are short and intense. With extended daylight hours and cool temperatures, Alaskans work and play hard in the summers, knowing that winters here are as long and dark as the summers are short and light. This is the second sea turtle I've worked on. The first being a green sea turtle, that landed on a beach in Homer, Alaska, after coming North in a bubble of warm water during an El Nina year. That turtle skeleton (done as a senior project by a Homer High School student) is currently on display in the Pratt Museum here in Homer. If anyone has a complete, unarticulated sea turtle skeleton---Let's talk! I would consider donating my time to assemble it, in exchange for using it as a subject for purposes of writing a manual for the articulation of a sea turtle skeleton. They are world-class, cool skeletons and extremely challenging to put together. . .and hopefully, I'm not done with them yet. |
| Joanie Sarno with her baby a loggerhead sea turtle skeleton. |
| The Boneman was allowed to hold it. . .once. |
| click on photos to enlarge |