Cougar-mains Preserved at the Field Museum

By Margaret Lyons in News on Apr 25, 2008 5:44PM

If you, like us, were wondering what was going to happen to Roscoe Mellencamp's remains after his necropsy, wonder no more: The cougar killed in Roscoe Village has his final resting place at the Field Museum. The museum's famed mammal collection, which includes around 200,000 other specimens, now includes the bones and fur pelt of one more deceased big cat.

By the time the carcass reached the Field Museum—delivered in a plastic container—it was a crimson mess of bone and muscle but a gold mine for scientific research.

Mmmm! Field Museum biologists will strip the muscle and tissue off the bones and then let flesh-eating beetles do the nitty gritty. Beetles love a good cougarburger, we always say. Then our city's most famous feline will be filed away, his remains available to scientists for decades to come. RIP, cougar. [Trib. The photo is a little grody, just to warn you. This photo by Savannah Grandfather]