Museum of Osteology facts for kids
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Students outside of museum
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| Established | 2010 |
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| Location | Oklahoma City, United States |
| Type | Natural history museum |
| Collection size | 7,000+ skeletal specimens |
| Visitors | 500,000+ |
| Owner | Jay Villemarette |
The Museum of Osteology, located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., is a special museum all about bones and skeletons. "Osteology" is the scientific word for studying bones. This museum shows off over 450 animal skeletons from all over the world! It also has more than 7,000 other bone specimens that aren't on display. This makes it the biggest private collection of bones in the world. The museum is part of a company called Skulls Unlimited International.
Contents
Discover the World of Skeletons
The Museum of Osteology helps you learn all about how skeletons work. It shows how bones help animals move and what makes each animal's skeleton unique. You can see displays featuring all five main groups of animals with backbones. These groups are mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
The museum's amazing collection has been put together over 40 years by Jay Villemarette. Today, it includes about 7,000 bone specimens from over 1,800 different kinds of animals.
The museum offers many fun learning chances and events for everyone. One of its main goals is to get people excited about the natural world. They also want to inspire everyone to help protect animals and their habitats.
You can even touch real bones and take cool pictures with full skeletons. Since it opened, over 500,000 people from all over the world have visited the museum. They come to see the displays, do scavenger hunts, and learn more about bones for school projects.
Ethical Sourcing of Specimens
The Museum of Osteology is very careful about where its skeletons come from. They do not support or allow any illegal hunting or poaching. All the bones in the museum are collected in a way that is fair and respectful to the animals.
The museum works with zoos, aquariums, wildlife centers, and nature preserves. They also partner with sportsmen and private donors. This ensures that animals are treated well and their remains are properly cared for after they pass away. The museum also gets donations from human donor programs.
History of the Bone Museum
Jay Villemarette, who started the company Skulls Unlimited International, Inc., created the museum with his family. Skulls Unlimited's offices and bone cleaning facilities are right next to the museum. Building the museum began in 2004, and it opened its doors to the public on October 1, 2010.
Villemarette wanted to share his love for science. He hoped to make learning about bones easier and more fun for everyone. The museum helps people understand how complex skeletons are. It also encourages us to appreciate all the different animals alive today.
In 2015, the Museum of Osteology opened a second location in Orlando, Florida. This museum was called Skeletons: Museum of Osteology. It was said to be the largest skeleton museum in America, with over 500 skeletons. In 2020, the Florida location closed. All its collections were moved to the Oklahoma City museum, making it even bigger.
The museum updated its exhibits starting in 2020. They used the time during the COVID pandemic closures to make improvements. These changes included bright new wallpaper and adding new skeletons to the displays.
The museum has been shown on many TV channels, in newspapers, and on podcasts. You can also find them on social media.
Museum TV Appearances
The Museum of Osteology has been featured on several TV shows, including:
- Ripley's Believe It or Not! "Skull Supplier" (2001)
- Dirty Jobs; "Skull Cleaner" (2006)
- Mysteries at the Museum; "Van Meter Visitor" (2017)
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; "Organs & Body Donations" (2023)
Explore the Exhibits
The museum has many exhibits from all five groups of animals with backbones. You'll also see "floating exhibits" around the museum and even whales hanging from the ceiling! All the skeletons on display are cleaned at the Skulls Unlimited building next door. They use special beetles to help clean the bones. After cleaning, the skeletons are put back together and displayed.
The exhibits cover many interesting topics. You can learn about how animals move, how they adapt to their environments, and even how bones can help solve mysteries. The museum offers scavenger hunts for all ages, and you can find the answers throughout the exhibits.
The "Explorers Corner" is a special area just for kids. It has hands-on activities where you can touch real animal skulls. You can also dissect owl pellets, which are little bundles of undigested food that owls spit up.
Notable Skeletons and Specimens
The museum has some truly amazing and rare skeletons:
- Humpback whale – This is one of only 12 fully put-together humpback whale skeletons in North America. This whale washed ashore in 2003. It was buried for two years, then cleaned by Skulls Unlimited International. The whale was even featured on an episode of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs, where Mike helped clean the skeleton.
- Komodo dragon – This was one of the first Komodo dragons ever allowed into the United States. It was a gift from the president of Indonesia to President George H. W. Bush.
- Chimp from Space Program – This chimpanzee was used in the space program at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. It was donated to the museum by a retired NASA scientist.
- Javan rhino – This is the rarest skeleton in the museum's collection. The Javan rhino is the most endangered type of rhino in the world.
- Sumatran rhino – This is another very endangered rhino, with only about 80 left in the world. They are the smallest rhino species. The Cincinnati Zoo was the first place to successfully breed this rhino in over 100 years. One of those rhinos was a female named Suci. The museum was honored to care for her skeleton after she passed away. Dr. Terri Roth, an expert on Sumatran rhinos, has used the museum's collection for her research.
- Cetacean Collection – The museum has the largest private collection of cetaceans. This group includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. The museum's collection has 46 different species of cetaceans. There are about 80 different species in the world.
- Hippopotamus – The museum currently has a complete skeleton of an adult hippopotamus on display.
Images for kids
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Hippopotamus skeleton
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Comparative anatomy exhibit
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Museum in the final stages of development, March 2010
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Elephant skeleton
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Fossil hominid and human evolution exhibit
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Seal exhibit
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"Devon" the grizzly bear, photo opportunity
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Primate exhibit
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A skeleton of a Kinkajou
