Beaty Biodiversity Museum Vertebrate Lab – Vancouver, B.C.
The collective name for martens is a richness. It is the flavour I imagine the dermestid beetle munching on this marten skull is experiencing. My research at the Beaty BIodiversity Museum into the taxonomy of martens requires the sampling, cleaning (done mostly by Dermestes maculata), measuring, and 3D imaging a vast amount of skulls. Will this specimen end up being Martes americana or Martes caurina – American or Pacific Marten?