Life Sciences Unit: Neat Stuff - Collect and Preserve
Dermestids at work
There are few things more synonymous with museums than skeletons. Have you ever wondered how museums prepare the skeletons of dead animals? Well, we let beetles do all the work! As is common practice in many natural history museums, the RSM houses a colony of dermestid beetles. In the wild, these beetles eat the carcasses of dead animals. So, museums take advantage of this behaviour and use the beetles to clean the carcasses of our dead animals, preparing them as skeletons. The RSM’s beetle colony is relatively small but is still active enough to clean a mouse skeleton in a matter of hours. Some museums have very large beetle colonies that are capable of cleaning a large specimen like a bear in less than day!
Dermestid beetles cleaning a wolf skull
For further information contact the Curator of Life Sciences.
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