Biodiversity Information Science and Standards : Conference Abstract
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Corresponding author: Hannah Selvey (hase9795@colorado.edu)
Received: 25 Apr 2018 | Published: 15 Jun 2018
© 2018 Hannah Selvey, Andrew Doll, Jeff Stephenson
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Selvey H, Doll A, Stephenson J (2018) Exploring Skeletal Preparation Techniques: Recuration of Botswana Mammals from a 1969 Expedition Using TergazymeTM. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 2: e26185. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.2.26185
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We explored the efficiency of TergazymeTM bone cleaning techniques to recurate mammalian skeletal material from a 1969 expedition to Botswana, in Southern Africa. Mr. J.D. Putnam and colleagues shot and killed over 400 specimens during this expedition, bringing them back as trophies. These skeletal materials and skins of these specimens have remained in the collections at Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS), after haphazard preparation with pesticides such as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and negligent soft tissue removal. Many of the skulls and post-cranial materials are coated with dessicated muscle and other connective tissues, including cartilage around the turbinate bones, and most of the soft tissue remains on the surface of the hard palate. These materials continue to emit noxious fumes permeating even the protective archival plastic and cardboard within which they had been temporarily stored. Recuration of these specimens needs to consider the safety of the preparator and other volunteers, and the fragile state of skull and post-cranial materials in DDT for nearly five decades.
TergazymeTM is a concentrated detergent used to remove protein and other biological tissues from medical instruments (
skeletal preparation, maceration techniques, recuration, Botswana, TergazymeTM
Jeff Stephenson, & Hannah Selvey
2018 Proceedings of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
This project took place at Denver Museum of Nature & Science.