[NHCOLL-L:980] Re: mummified marmot

[Boylan P]

Sally:

I'm not a specialist, but it sounds like a classic case of mummification
by natural freeze-drying.  The extensive research on laboratory
freeze-drying in the '60s, such as that by Reg Harris at the British
Museum (Natural History) showed that when deeply frozen the water content
in effect sublimates off as water vapour without going through a liquid
phase, and condenses on cold surfaces outside the body. 

Under lab conditions a high vacuum chamber is used (with a colder outer
coil or surface to condense and freeze out the water vapour given off),
but there's a lot of evidence that in very severe (permafrost or 
glaciated) conditions this can happen naturally, as with the baby mammoth
nicknamed "Dima" from the Kolyma River region of Siberia, found around
1976. This was extensively researched at the time and the results (as
summarised above) were reported to a Vertebrate Palaeol. Session I chaired
during the 1977 International Quaternary Science (INQUA) World Congress in
Birmingham, UK.



Patrick Boylan


============================ 

On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, Sally Shelton wrote:

> Forwarded from VRTPALEO. 
> 
> >>> tintori at e35.gp.terra.unimi.it 04/03/01 11:26AM >>>
> Dear all,
> a mummified marmot, found more than 25 years ago, is in my office after that for all that period the finder displayed the specimen at home without any treatment. The marmot has been found very close to a glacier in the Alps, but not in the ice and I sup
pose it never was inside the ice as it appears very well preserved, apart for the fur that is almost totally disappeared.
> 
> As I usually work on much older animals (Triassic fishes!) I should like to know more about this kind of preservation. If anyone had similar finds, please contact me off-list (if you think the argument not of general interest).
> 
> thank you
> andrea 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Prof. Andrea Tintori
> Dip. Scienze della Terra
> Università degli Studi di Milano
> Via Mangiagalli 34
> I-20133 MILANO
> phone +39.02.23698202
> fax   +39.02.70638261
> e.mail andrea.tintori at unimi.it
> 
>