Scrubbing-up ancient skeletons

Gazing at old family photographs, I sometimes feel like a time-traveller behind a window looking directly into the past, to a moment frozen in time. I am always struck by the same emotions when walking through museums and galleries. Gigantic fossils of mammals and birds are placed into poses they may have once adopted when roaming the Earth.

Unlike the objects in photographs however, museum exhibits are not in fact stuck in the past. Over the years, dust and other contaminants settle on their fragile frames, while the poses they strike weaken their bones. Chemistry holds the key to preserving them.

Conservators at the Grant Museum of Zoology, University College London, UK, are undertaking a major conservation project of 39 of their rarest skeletons. Among the collection are the strange remains of an ariid catfish, the head of which resembles a crucifix, and one of the rarest skeletons in the world, the extinct quagga – a half-striped zebra. In many cases the skeletons are irreplaceable.