Postcranial skeleton of small mammals in biology education

This master thesis demonstrates feasibility of identification of small rodents in the pellets of Long-eared Owl {Asio otus) using pelvic bones and postcranial skeleton in biology classes. The first part of the text summarizes theoretical information on mammalian skeleton and owl pellets with in-class activities suggested. The methodology chapter describes methods of owl pellets collection and preparation, and subsequent processing of osteologic fragments extracted from the pellets. A list and relative distribution of small rodent species found during the analysis are included as well as a key for identification of small rodents using skeleton tragments. The outcome of the thesis are four teaching units that were successfully tested by the author on students from eight- and four-year Grammar Schools