This is such a weird and cool thread! I envy you those dried tarantula skins, Lisa! The nearest thing to that here is that we occasionally find a naturally-dried peeper (little frog) when cleaning behind heavy pieces of furniture.

When my eldest nephew was 8, I found some owl pellets (bits of fur and bone that owls regurgitate from their meals of small mammals) under a tree near my home. They were already pretty dry, so I packed them carefully and mailed them to him along with a little book about owls. He had a great time telling me about the bones and fur he found as he teased the pellets apart. Now he's 23 and doing his bachelor's degree in microbiology. I like to think it all started with Aunt Judy's owl pellets.