All living organisms are held in shape and supported in some way. Many of them have special structures that do this. These structures are called skeletons. Skeletons are the 'frameworks for survival'.
The activity station in the Skeletons: frameworks for survival exhibition divides into a number of different types of skeletons, the main types being internal or endoskeletons ('endo' means inside) and external or exoskeletons ('exo' means outside).
The activity station displays a number of skeleton specimens for visitors to touch, x-rays of many different species to view through a light box as well as a skeleton to puzzle together!
Tarantula skins
Wendy Macallister
"I like to talk about spiders getting out of their skins and that they start off so small and can grow to such a large size. I talk about how many billions of baby spiders there are, but how few really big spiders exist."
Copyright © Australian Museum, 2003
