Archaeopteryx Expressions

AE is about science communication in the fields of biology and paleontology.

Turkey Bones

I shared a tip in the page Bird Conservation – Archaeopteryx Expressions for some fun learning with your Thanksgiving (or anytime) turkey bones. I followed the same instructions and found some fun things I wanted to share with you now. I’m planning a much bigger skeletal learning unit for January.

First, I took the turkey carcass after Mom had cut the meat she wanted for the big feast and put it in our crockpot filled halfway with water. It cooked on high for an hour then switched to the low setting overnight into the next day (was about 10 hours). I then took a dinner fork and carefully starting “fishing” for the bones, pulling off the rest of the meat and laying the bones in a clean, disposable tin pan. Turkey carcasses have 30-40 bones as there’s plenty of vertebrae and ribs to find. Once I was sure I had all of the bones out of the crock pot (Mom, our family chef) took back over and got the meat and water ready to preserve as turkey soup stock.