#skeletoncollection

💀 New Life After Death 👻

🏛️ I’ve loved the natural world for as long as I can remember. And while it is sad to work with dead animals, each specimen gets to live on, becoming immortal through the museum. 

🦉 The goal of preservation is to make something that can withstand the test of time. When we open the drawers full of birds, there are specimens from the 1920s that are the prettiest bird in the bunch. So these hundred-year-old specimens live on to show us a snapshot of their world. It’s a little like time traveling. From the data associated with it, we can know where an animal was living, what it was eating, how old it was, how it died and often much more. These creatures, once thought to be gone forever, are reborn in our understanding, offering glimpses into the past that inform our present.

🧬 These specimens get to live on and answer questions we humans don’t even know to ask yet. Natural history museums have been collecting objects and specimens since the 17th century. In the 1950’s, the people collecting small mammals in the Philippines had no idea that in 50 years their specimens could be used in DNA studies. This is a testament to the afterlife of these animals in the world of science. They continue to play a role, even in a new era. As our understanding and technology evolves, these preserved beings will be resurrected once again, offering fresh insights and knowledge to future generations.

👩‍🔬 Collection workers like me are stewards of these specimens, making sure they can tell their stories for as long as possible. In a way, we are the guardians of this cycle of life, death, and rebirth in the realm of natural history. These creatures find a form of immortality, transcending death by becoming timeless messengers of the natural world. Their stories continue to unfold, and their contributions to our understanding of life on Earth are bound to endure, even as we peer into the mysteries of existence, both in this world and, perhaps, the next.

-Abbey 🦕🐝🍄