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Archive for May, 2015

The world’s rarest skeleton returns to the Grant Museum

By Jack Ashby, on 1 May 2015

Can you spot the difference between these two photos?

The quagga before conservation and remounting. LDUCZ-Z581

The quagga before conservation and remounting. LDUCZ-Z581

The quagga  after conservation and remounting. LDUCZ-Z581. Courtesy of Nigel Larkin

The quagga after conservation and remounting. LDUCZ-Z581. Courtesy of Nigel Larkin

They both depict the world’s rarest skeleton – that of the quagga, an extinct not very stripy kind of zebra – the UK’s only articulated quagga lives here at the Grant. There are only six (or possibly five) other skeletons in existence. The top picture was taken in February, on the day that she left the Museum to undergo major treatment for the ills that resulted from over a hundred years of grime and questionable mounting. The second was taken on Tuesday, when she returned to us. The quagga (and our rhino) were the biggest single tasks for our massive conservation project Bone Idols: Protecting our iconic skeletons, working to save 39 of our biggest and most significant specimens for the long term future.

Hopefully you’ve spotted eveything that specialist bone preparator Nigel Larkin has done to prolong the “shelf life” of the quagga… (more…)