The Skull Index CIC

Check us out on Discord! We have a welcoming and active community server open to academics, professionals, and hobbyists! We have several exciting things planned for the next few months and our Discord server is the best way to keep informed while connecting with our staff.

discord.gg/4VUKMWqrgQ

We're getting some amazing species added to the index over the next few weeks. This is only a fragment of the selection. Javan Rhinoceros, Lappet-Faced Vulture, Rhinoceros Iguana + Saltwater Crocodile, to name some!

Amazing outreach stall at @uniofleicester.bsky.social 's Botanical Gardens for the Plant Sale & Family Day. Huge thank you to our volunteers and director who manned the stall, as well as volunteers who arrived at the end of the day to help take down the gazebo and tables!

Two acrylic pins on black backing cards, one pin features the skull of a toco toucan holding a berry between its very colourful and vibrant orange beak. The other pin shows the skull of a helmeted hornbill, which is holding an orange coloured fig called a strangler fig.

A hand holding up one acrylic pin on a black backing card, the pin being held up features the skull of a toco toucan holding a berry between its very colourful and vibrant orange beak.

Look what we have! Official Skull Index Pins! Designed by our Director, they showcase the Toco Toucan and critically endangered Helmeted Hornbill. They are made of recycled acrylic (R-MMA) and are VOC and HFC-free. What do you think?

Lateral left and right views of a skull of a bat, the species is Veldjamp's dwarf fruit bat.

Lateral left and right views of a bat skull, the species is Pratt's roundleaf bat.

Lateral right and left views of the skull of a bat, the species is Greater False Vampire bat

Lateral left and right views of a bat skull, the species is Great roundleaf bat.

We're getting a lovely selection of Bats added to the index this week, thanks to collaborator Podalirio_del_fantasista! A great comparative set.

Corsac Fox (Vulpes corsac) and a Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) added to the index thanks to collaborators Cross.W & jaketeachesdeath!

Our outreach stalls will be at these two events this summer. Make sure to save the date!

Microscopes, Skull Guessing Game, Activity Sheets to take home, handling specimen collection, stickers and more! 🦴

If all goes well, we might be able to set up a small online shop to allow people to get these pins and more for themselves in August or September!
4/4

50% of proceeds will be split between these charities during the events, any remaining funds go directly back to our volunteer led and ran CIC to help keep the domain and website afloat and the cost of table hires. 3/4

See them first at Leicester Botanical Garden Plant Sale & Family Day on the 29th June and GetCrafted!Market July 20th, along with other small keyrings & wooden pins by our artist to fundraise for multiple charities such as Whitby Wildlife Sanctuary, Rainforest Trust and Save the Frogs. 2/4

We've got some very exciting news! We've been looking at more ways to fundraise for wildlife and conservation charities/projects, and one of our in-house artists designed concept art for recycled acrylic pins! 1/4

Lateral Left view of the skull of an atlantic yellow nosed albatross, showing off the vibrant yellow and black beak. The Skull is against a black background.

Superior and Inferior view of the skull of an Atlantic yellow-nosed Albatross, showing off the vibrant yellow and black beak and delicate pterygoid bones. The Skull is on top of a black background

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross submitted by collaborator Demikiev!

#atlanticyellownosedalbatross #birdskulls #vultureculture

Views of the skull of a Grey Fox ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus ), showing the dentition of the underside of the maxilla, and the dentition of the mandible, the skull is against a black background.

Lateral Right view of the skull of a Grey Fox ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus ), against a black background.

Grey Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) added to the index thanks to our USA Team Lead, @dreaddoughnuts.bsky.social !

We are aware that the QR Code no longer works, oops! The link it directs to is our Linktree thats in our bio!

Next month we'll be fundraising at the Leicester Botanical Gardens for the Rainforest Trust, especially for the endangered helmeted hornbills, which are constantly being poached for their horn 'ivory' and skulls.

Anterior view of an adult male Bornean orangutan skull.

Left lateral view of a koala skull.

Right lateral view of a Grevy's zebra skull.

Anterior view of a mainland clouded leopard skull.

Today is world Endangered Species Day (May 16th) and we're sharing some species from our index today! The mainland clouded leopard, Grevy's zebra, koala and Bornean orangutan.

Corsac Fox [ Vulpes corsac ] submitted by collaborator Cross W!

Photographs of the skull of a White Necked Raven. A large corvid with a thick, large beak. Two views showing lateral right and lefts, against a black background,

White Necked Raven [Corvus albicollis] submitted by collaborator Demikiev! These birds are often described as 'a Raven with a sore throat', with a croak call that is more husky and whispering note than other Raven species.

Left and Right lateral images of the skull of a Von Der Decker's Hornbill skull, showing off the brightly coloured red and ivory coloured bill.

Left and right Lateral views of the skull of a Southern Ground Hornbill, showing off the large beak that this species has.

Left lateral view of the skull of an abdim's stork against a black background.

Left and right lateral views of the skull of a Grey Crowned Crane, showing off the bulbous cranium with twin bumps on the posterior frontal bone.

We'll be adding lots of different birds over the next few weeks on the database! Keep up to date with new species being added first on our community discord! (linktree in bio)

We've been invited back to the Leicester University Botanical Gardens for Plant Sale & Family Day this June!
Lots of fun activities for the family, including wildlife groups like yours truly! 🦴 #outreacheducation #leicesterevents #leicesterwildlifegroup #theskullindex
le.ac.uk/botanic-gard...

Anterior and posterior views of an adult male crab-eating macaque skull.

Crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis) added to the Index thanks to SJM!

Anterior and posterior views of an adult female olive baboon skull.

Olive baboon (Papio anubis) added to the index thanks to SJM!

Our volunteer, Grace, had a fantastic educational stall at The Shadow Market in Crook, County Durham! There were lots of info sheets, activities, and a peek at our feature in The Taxidermist's Journal! #outreacheducation #animalskulls #zoology

Lateral left view of a skull of a large male Asiatic Black Bear (Scientific binomial name is 'Ursus thibetanus', small text in the top right corner says the collaborator username ' sanderjanssen036' and the URL skull-index.com.

Asiatic Black Bear has been added to the index thanks to collaborator sanderjanssen036!

Just a reminder that we are on Discord! If you’d like to connect with our staff or get involved with the project this is one of the best ways to do so!

Lateral view of a bay duiker skull.

Bay duiker (Cephalophus dorsalis) added to the site thanks to collaborator Demikiev!

Lateral view of a Grévy's zebra skull.

A very rare Grévy's zebra (Equus grevyi) added to the site thanks to collaborator Aäron Mathyssen!

A graphic inviting viewers to join the Skull Index Community Discord. The graphic includes that the server is active, features many channels, and is a space to connect with project staff and collaborators.

Our official Community Server is growing! We have a welcoming 18+ community of collectors, academics, and industry professionals. We also host monthly giveaways and starting this month will be hosting monthly movie nights!

discord.gg/FC9ewJVGgX

Ah damn! Both Brown and Striped Hyenas have that tiny molar, if you're unsure which species you have from those two feel free to reply back with a photo or message us!

Lateral right view of a Crab-Eating Mongoose skull, a type of herpestidae, against a black background. The text 'Cross.W - skull-index.com' in the top left corner, and the text ' Crab-eating Mongoose - urva urva' in the bottom right.

A Crab-Eating Mongoose (Urva urva) added to the index thanks to collaborator Cross.W!