TheBoneman.com
Bone Building Books
Step-by-Step Guides for the Preparation and Articulation of Animal Skeletons
By Lee Post (a.k.a. Boneman)
Digital PDF Bone Building Books
Step-by-Step Guides for the Preparation and Articulation of Animal Skeletons
By Lee Post (a.k.a. Boneman)
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Articulations of a Porpoise Skeleton, Vol. 1, PDF
PDF-Book-$39
This manual is a step-by-step guide to preparing and articulating a small cetacean skeleton. It is based on the articulation of a harbor porpoise skeleton but is directly applicable to any whale skeleton less than 10-feet long. The manual includes a full set of illustrations of a harbor porpoise skeleton. This is a project that you too can do if you have access to a porpoise or dolphin skeleton. Click on sample pages below.​ PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
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The Sperm Whale Engieering Manual, Vol. 2, PDF
It's not like everyone is going to run out and collect a sperm whale, but if you were going to, or if you have a large whale to articulate, this is a printed manual that documents the engineering used to assemble such a big animal. It is based on the engineering done to assemble and suspend a 41-foot sperm whale in the Homer High School (Homer, Alaska) as a collaborative project between the Pratt Museum and the Homer High. Included are student illustrations of the bones and copies of the finest illustrations of sperm whale bones ever done. It now has details of several gray whales I have done since this sperm whale. Click on sample pages below.​ PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
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PDF-Book--$39
Downloading Our PDFs to cell phones is NOT recommended.
The Whale Building Book, Vol. 3. PDF
This manual is used to prepare and articulate the skeletons of whales larger than a dolphin but smaller than the great whales. It contains the instructions, tips, and methods used for articulating whales from 10 to 25-feet in length, based on the author's 40-year history with whale skeletons of this size range. ​PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
Pinniped Projects, Vol. 4, PDF
For those who have a pinniped skeleton or are planning to articulate a seal or sea lion, this is the printed manual for you. Easy step by step instructions with very detailed illustrations of even the flipper bones. This manual is based on multiple pinniped projects, some done with school groups. ​PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
PDF-Book--$39
PDF-Book--$39
Tap/Click to Open Sample Pages
Downloading Our PDFs to cell phones is NOT recommended.
The Bird Building Book, Vol. 5
In a way, this manual is two manuals bound together. The first part is the step by step instructions on preparing and articulating a large bird skeleton with a section on a VERY large bird - ie., Big Bird - ie., an emu. The skeleton used for illustration is mostly an eagle skeleton but the techniques are the same for anything the size of (or larger than) a chicken or a raven - a good classroom project. The second part of the manual is a detailed guide to the bones of a bird with enough labeling and detail to be able to sort a pile of bird bones into the skeletal elements, including which side of the bird each bone came from. This is very helpful information for zooarchaeology students who are working with bird bones. ​PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
The Moose Manual, Vol. 6
This is the manual you want if you are contemplating a skeleton articulation project of a moose - or cow - or horse - or caribou - or buffalo - or deer - or elk - or wildebeest - or any other large hoofed, four-legged mammal. It goes from the cleaning of the bones to the display of the finished skeleton in steps that even students can follow. ​​PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
Tap/Click to Open Sample Pages
PDF-Book--$39
PDF-Book--$39
Downloading Our PDFs to cell phones is NOT recommended.
Building Bear Bone, Vol. 7, PDF
Not a lot of people are going to be articulating bear skeletons, but if you were - this is the manual you would want. Bear skeletons are fascinating because the anatomy of a standing bear is so similar to our own. The skinned-out hands and feet are sometimes turned in as homicide remains. This manual has detailed illustrations of bear bones, including all the carpals, and tarsals from the hands and feet. Just to avoid such confusion it now has comparative illustrations of human vs bear hands and feet. This is the step by step process once used by a grade school to do a museum quality skeletal mount of a bear.
PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
Canine Construction, Vol. 8, PDF
Given that it is relatively easy to come by a canid carcass as a possible skeleton project, this is the manual that instructs step by step, what to do next. It is based on the articulation of a wolf but is applicable to any type of canid from a wild wolf to a no longer yapping poodle. It includes a complete set of illustrations of a wolf skeleton, bone-by-bone details of the foot bones, as well as labeled parts and features of many of the bones for reference. PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
PDF Book--$39
PDF Book--$39
Tap/Click to Open Sample Pages
Downloading Our PDFs to cell phones is NOT recommended.
The Small Mammal Manual Manuscript, Vol. 9, PDF
Bonebuilder's Notebook, Vol. 10, PDF
This manual is about the techniques for the articulation of mammals smaller than a wolf, using a lynx as the primary example, and details (especially of the feet) from other small mammals that commonly get articulated - including the raccoon, beaver, nutria, rabbit, and opossum. The sea otter has been removed and the section on the rabbit has been extended. A brief write-up about the oxidization method of preparing a ligamentary skeleton is included. ​PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
PDF Book--$39
This manual is a companion reference book to any of the other bone-building manuals. Volumes 1 through 9 are step-by-step skeleton articulation guides of individual animal groups; Bone Builder's Notebook tells the rest of the story. If you work with bones or desire to work with bones, this is the answer book to questions you may have about preparing bones or skeletons for use in collections, or for display. It details how to acquire bones, the different options for cleaning, degreasing, and whitening bones, the tools and materials used for articulating skeletons, and includes sections on identifying and siding mammal bones, osteology vocabulary, and reference books. Whether you are a bone enthusiast or a museum professional, this manual has the information pertaining to bone-work that has been virtually impossible to find in print - until now. PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
Tap/Click to Open Sample Pages
PDF Book--$39
Downloading Our PDFs to cell phones is NOT recommended.
Also by Lee Post
Bone Guide To Selected Land Mammals, PDF
By Matt Crockett
Anatomy and Articulation of a Horse Skeleton
Tap/Click to Open
Tap/Click to Open
PDF Book--$39
This manual is a collection of illustrations of the bones of 31 different land mammals. This was done as a reference guide for zooarchaeology students but will be indispensable for anyone desiring to identify bones from these mammals. This manual does not have step by step instruction. PDF - $39
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
This is a printable digital manual that Matt Crockett, an attorney from Dallas, Texas, created after he cleaned and assembled a horse skeleton in 2016, following the methods illustrated in The Moose Manual. The end result, besides a beautifully finished horse skeleton, was a digital manual in which he documented photographically and in writing, step by step how the skeleton was articulated. Matt has included invaluable photos on the identification, placement, and siding of the bones specific to the horse which are not covered in the moose building manual. He has offered the manual as an eManual for $25 with $20 of it to be donated to the Pratt Museum of Natural History in Homer, Alaska. Matt visited the Pratt Museum when he came to Homer in the summer of 2016. The Pratt Museum was the origin of my bone building experiences and has several of my first skeletal articulations still on display. The Bone-Building Manuals were originally written in response to teachers and educators who saw what we were doing at the museum and wanted to know how they too could do such projects in their classrooms. $25 - 62 pages
After purchase, you will receive an email with a link from which you will be able to download your digital book.
PDF Book (only)--$25
Downloading Our PDFs to cell phones is NOT recommended.