ah, but you most certainly CAN ask for the skeletons...how else do you think
we get comparative collections?  At the University of Tennessee anthropology
department, the zooarcheology comparative collection includes polar bears.
How did we get them?  Asked the local zoo for the skeleton when one of their
bears died.  What else do you need them for?  It's no different from
donating your own human body to science.  I fully intend to donate my
ferret's remains to the zooarch lab, if they'll take him.
 
btw, I know about this because my husband is a graduate student in the
anthropology department here at UT, and I myself was one for a year, and
we've both used the zooarch collections here and at our undergrad anthro
program.
 
Theresa, Brent and Sydney
[Posted in FML issue 1411]