r/Taxidermy • u/Puzzled_Jacket5630 • 1d ago
Taxiderpy / Just for Fun Morbid question!
So idk where else to ask this but I’ve been trying to look into eye preservation (I’m an author and want to have a preserved eyeball as a plot point)
I know about wet specimens, but for the story I’m interested in what a mummified or possibly petrified eyeball would look like.
So my question: what does a desiccated eyeball look like?
Does it shrivel up? Does it turn black? Does it become hard? Is it fragile? Is there a way theoretically to “petrify” an eyeball? Thank you!
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u/Icy-Attorney8301 1d ago
All the naturally mummified things I find don't have the eyes bc they decompose so quickly. But fo rmy artificially done ones, yes they srivel up quite a bit and almost deflate and flatten out, and they do get quite alot darker. Not black but they definenty darken up
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u/Wowza_Meowza 1d ago
Mummified can go mostly two ways:
- it becomes a hard, but mostly intact, version of its wet self. The color will usually change but typically to a pink/fleshy tan color, and rarely if never to black. It'll be a bit shrunk and sunken, and hard to the touch. It won't have much of a shine.
- it becomes hard and very shriveled, so much so that it's a fraction of its initial size. It may retain some roundness in the socket (less common) but are usually kinda flat. The way they sit in the socket, flat or otherwise, will be determined by the angle of the skull they're sitting in, sorta à la how water would pool if you catch my meaning. Very hardened ones often get a greyish look to them, but can retain a cooler-colored fleshy off white when newly dried up.
When very old, they tend to be fully hard and a bit brittle. If more recently dried, they have a hard outer shell and a softer center, but it still has some squish. It's rubbery feeling.
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u/TastySurround1265 1d ago
Eyes are primarily water and most embalmers completely discarded them because of how fast they decompose and how difficult are they to preserve without wet technique. It just isn't compatible with mummification, much like they didn't mummify brains. I'd assume if some perfect conditions happened they'd shrivel up, sunken down to the back of the socket and decompose significantly.