Industry Retail Founded June 1986 Type of business Private Corporation | Area served Worldwide Headquarters Oklahoma City | |
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Key people Jay Villemarette (President) Products Real and replica skulls and skeletons. Website www.skullsunlimited.com Profiles | ||
Skulls Unlimited International, Inc. is a commercial supplier of osteological specimens located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Skulls Unlimited provides a skull cleaning service, using dermestid beetles to strip the flesh from skulls and skeletons. The bones are later whitened using hydrogen peroxide. Skulls Unlimited processes approximately 25,000 skull specimens per year.
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History
In the summer of 1986, Jay Villemarette found himself out of work after being laid off from his auto body job and started considering the possibility of working full-time with skulls. In June of that year he established Skulls Unlimited International. His fascination with skulls and bones began when he was seven years old, after he found a dog skull in the woods near his home. That interest, along with encouragement from his father, led Villemarette to begin collecting other animal skulls. After graduating from high school, he collected and sold skulls in his spare time while working as an auto body technician. As sales grew, Villemarette and his wife Kim began to clean skulls in their kitchen.
After relocating to a retail location for his business in 1992, Villemarette was able to employ his first full-time employees Skulls Unlimited remained at their South Shields address until June 2000, when they expanded into a custom built facility in Oklahoma City.
Over the years this business has been featured in several television programs including;
In 2004, Skulls Unlimited was invited to participate in the Discovery Channel's Young Scientists Challenge in Washington D.C. This televised event was hosted by the Mythbusters, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.
In January 2013, Villemarette guest starred on John Hodgman's podcast Judge John Hodgman as an "expert witness" to comment on the hobby of collecting skeletons and taxidermied animals.
Museum of Osteology
In 2004, Skulls Unlimited started construction on a new 12,000-square-foot (1,100 m2) building that now houses Skulls Unlimited's corporate offices and The Museum of Osteology. The museum opened to the public on October 1, 2010 and exhibits over 300 real skeletons and over 400 real skulls, focusing on the form and function of the skeletal system. On May 1, 2015, Skulls Unlimited opened a second museum, Skeletons: Animals Unveiled, in Orlando, FL., which displays over 400 real skeletons.