A Whale Hall Update and A Surprise Discovery

We have now cleaned three of the largest whales in the collection, a Northern Right whale, a Humpback whale and a Sei whale and we are in the process of cleaning the equally massive Finn whale. There is still some work to be carried out these skeletons as we will fill in cracks found in bones, repalce missing parts of bones and re-articulate some of the ribs which were removed for cleaning.

Things are going well and we are continuing with the wet cleaning methods we have refined over the previous months. Currently we are working on the tail (caudal vertebrae) and ribs and so far, although very dirty, this skeleton does not appear to be very oily in comparison to the others.

Whilst cleaning the tail vertebrae Marielle has come across something very interesting…..

On the dorsal surface of the lateral process of the 41st vertebrae she saw something under the dirt scratched into the surface of the bones – as she rubbed away some of the dirt it become clear…

It would appear that one of the people preparing this whale skeleton has scratched his or her initials and date into the bone – a very interesting, and very old, artefact and a very special connection to the person who was last cleaning these bones over 100 years before Marielle. You never know, there may be more surprises under the dirt as we continue…