The Dermestidae family of beetles have a fondness for eating dead things. Proving yet again that there is no such thing as a free lunch, these little scavengers have to work for their food at the Natural History Museum in London, UK.
When the museum needs to prepare a skeleton for showing in a collection, they don’t use chemicals that can damage the bones. Instead they turn to their tiniest of employees, the Dermestes haemorrhoidalis. Watch as these flesh-eating beetles strip the tissues off a great green macaw, a tawny owl, and a pheasant in this time-lapse video. There is no musical accompaniment so might I suggest you play an appropriate Frank Sinatra song in another browser tab.
[via Obvious Winner]