What is a roadkill?
This may seem like a simple question. However, for our purposes, roadkill includes three main categories: animals actually killed by cars, those dying of natural causes, and game animals which were legally hunted and donated for your use in educational activities. Why collect dead animals? Although differing greatly in form and adaptation, all vertebrate life shares certain things. They all have backbones, for example. This structure is very different in fish, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Your collection will allow students to see how all life is tied together. You can compare your collection to the spine on a plastic human skeleton if your site has one. Your students can observe the various four-legged, two-legged, and no-legged spinal adaptations. How does the leg attachment differ? Compare the skulls of a meat-eating bobcat or shark with a plant-eating deer. How do their dental differences reflect their eating habits? What kind of teeth do the omnivorous raccoons have? What about p
