found this piece at work the other day, i want to preserve the cool horse skull-looking aspect of it and hang it on my wall. hopefully with as little changes as I can get away with. the thinner part on the end (red circles) is especially important to me

i could use info on all of this stuff:

\- ID; i don't have pics of the tree it came off of, but if anyone could ID the type of wood/bark from the last pic that would be great. found in northwest New Jersey nearby a creek if that helps.

\-pests; i saw a spider and something else crawling around on it, but it's too big for my freezer. i need other creature-killing ideas that won't damage the wood

\- rot/damage; i pulled off a lot of the softer parts by hand and cleaned it off with an old toothbrush, but i stopped there. what else should i do to it to eliminate as much rot/future rotting as possible without making it too thin or brittle?

\-preservation; finally, what kind of preservative(s) should i use on a piece like this? i'd like to keep it as close to this look/texture as i can, but it's more important to me that it's not too delicate, so i'm okay with anything that doesn't involve sanding down the front

currently all i have is the workbench i took the pics on, a space heater i can use for drying, and a cat that i have to protect the project from

preservation advice needed for natural wood/bark