I collect interesting skulls, turtle carapaces and other bones too as I find them in the field. The easiest is when mother nature has already performed the cleaning and bleaching for you but often that's a rare find. I've used Chlorox bleach solutions to clean off the meat and bleach bone but this can be nasty -left for too long it starts attacking the bone. I've learned to soak such cleaned items in several after-washings of fresh water to assure all the bleach is gone.

On the other hand I also have 2 turtles (Terrapene and Chrysemys) buried in my back yard near a compost pile that should be about finished now. One is contained in a screened bag as an experiment. Unfortunately I no longer remember their exact location. Chelonian quest anyone?