My name is Andreas Lingnau, I am a zoologist (PhD), living in the 'Allgäu', in the south of Germany.
I have built up a private collection of animal skulls and vertebrate fossils over
the last two decades. Until now, I have collected about 300 different animal skulls,
most of which I prepared myself.
see how fascinating skulls are
During the last couple of years, I have been organizing small non-commercial
exhibitions on different topics using these skulls. What started as an idea to get
into contact with zoos, and to receive dead bodies from exotic animals for preparation
every now and then, became a real passion of mine. I wanted to let others participate
in my fascination about skulls.
In museums and zoological gardens I show parts of my collection, I demonstrate
examples of the great variety of animals, and explain what one can learn about the
animals by studying the anatomy of their skulls. Everybody, including children, may
touch the skulls to get a feeling of the robustness of the bone, the aesthetic of
the shape, and the sharpness of the teeth. By having a closer look to animal's teeth,
one can deduct the kind of diet the different animals prefer. Some animals are
carnivorous, meat-eaters, having sharp teeth, others have broad teeth with widened
chewing surface. These animals prefer to eat plants. Omnivorous animals eat both,
meat and vegetarian food. They also have very specialized teeth for chewing plants
as well as meat.
One of my projects in 2013 was a permanent exhibition on the variety of different “weapons” that animals use, like antlers, horns, claws, teeth, or quills. Also venom is an effective weapon of many different animals. Highlights of the exhibit was the skull of a Jacob sheep, a rare breed with four instead of two horns, as well as the skull of an unicorn, that has never been on display in public before. With this exhibition I wanted the visitors to explore the diversity of intriguing weapons that animals use.
Exhibits on “the last ice age”, “domestication”, “animals with migration background” and other topics have been on display already or are currently in preparation.
skull of a wolf
If you have any questions, if you would like to donate interesting skulls
(both clean or unclean), or if you are interested in exhibitions using my skulls,
feel free to contact me.
I would be glad to help.
Andreas Lingnau
skulls@fastmail.com
www.skulls-and-more.de
Here an article from 2007 about my skulls in the "Members' Journal of the St Hubertus
Club of Great Britain":
"St Hubert Club of Great Britain, Members' Journal, December 2007"