Bone numbering involves writing the MVZ catalog number on every bone of a skeletal specimen. Special care must be taken to write the correct number neatly in archival ink, so that it is clearly legible. Because the MVZ has a lot of visitors using its skeletal collections, and also sends skeletal material on loan, having the correct number on all bones makes it easy to sort material if the bones get mixed up between different specimens.

Detailed guidelines on how to number bones for MVZ specimens are provided in our Bone Numbering Manual .