Cephalopodcast

3 Responses to “Funny Bones”

1. Jason Says:
   August 29th, 2007 at 6:31 am

   I should also mention the dork who recently paid $8K US for a mummified walrus baculum. Here’s some interesting notes on the subject from Wikipedia:

   The baculum (also penis bone, penile bone or os penis) is a bone found in the penis of most mammals. It is absent in humans, equids, marsupials, lagomorphs, and hyenas, amongst others. It is used for copulation and varies in size and shape by species. Its characteristics are sometimes used to differentiate between similar species.

   The oosik of Native Alaskan cultures is a polished and sometimes carved baculum of various large northern carnivores such as walruses. The raccoon baculum is sometimes worn as a luck or fertility charm.

   The word baculum originally meant “stick” or “staff” in Latin. The homologue to the baculum in female mammals is known as the baubellum or os clitoridis.

2. bioephemera Says:
   August 29th, 2007 at 10:20 am

   Skulls unlimited rocks! And their mailing boxes are distinctive - when the postman brings a gigantic box labeled “skulls unlimited,” the neighbors are impressed.

3. Jason Says:
   August 29th, 2007 at 10:40 am

   And here’s another little macabre example:
   

   Tessa Farmer’s miniscule sculptures reinvigorate a belief in fairies: not the sweet Tinkerbell image in popular conscience, but a biological, entomological, macabre species translating pastoral fable into nightmarish lore. Constructed from bits of organic material, such as roots, leaves, and dead insects, each of Farmer’s figures stand barely 1 cm tall, their painstakingly intricate detail visible only through a magnifying glass.