All items sold on this website are polyurethane resin replicas, made in USA. No real or natural bone is available on this site.
Pelecaniformes Skull Replicas are museum quality polyurethane resin. Our Brown & White Pelican skulls feature 2-Part Skull (seperate cranium & skull). Pelecaniformes skull replicas are cast from Cast of Original California Academy of Sciences specimens.
American White Pelican Skull Replica measures 17.0 inches and our Brown Pelican Skull Replica measures 16.6 inches.
The bill-pouch is elastic skin attached along the branches of the lower mandible and down the front of the throat, additionally supported and controlled by a greatly enlarged hyoid bone.
A large volume of water can be taken in with the mouth-full of fish.
The bird surfaces and the upper mandible, serving only as a lid to the pouch, is clamped shut. The head is tipped and water is drained out along the margins of the lower mandible.
The fish are kept in, much like ice in a slot-lidded pitcher. The fish are then swallowed whole.
If the fish require turning to facilitate swallowing head-first, the bill has a small hook, called the nail, on the tip to hold the slippery fish while it is turned.
The pelican is very light weight for its size and is cork-buoyant, popping to the surface even as its bill-pouch empties of water.
