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<p>Dear Jessica,</p>
<p>John's thought is pretty much the most plausible cause. Brass
wires (containing copper) were used very commonly to suspend
specimen or glass plates for mounts. It is actually quite common
to find greenish stained specimen in different collections. This
alteration is pretty much irreversible. In some way it also is a
very interesting effect, since in whole specimens, only the bone
and some fatty tissue is stained. In this sense it actually works
a a great staining method. Even though I think that in most of the
cases the staining is accidental. </p>
<p>Interesting tough, is that i've noticed that most of the older
specimens that still are containing brass wires for mounting that
is not corroded and therefore staining the specimens, are specimen
preserved in high percentage ethanol solutions (very little water
content). This could eventually help to know in what kind of
preservation fluid it was kept in. Off course this is no
certainty, but maybe some help for the documentation.</p>
<p>I really don't think that this has something to do with the
mentioned arsenic based green pigment. This is more of an issue
found on paper materials that were colored with this kind of
pigments (Wallpaper, Books, Furniture, etc.). Besides that based
from the time you told that the specimen was made, it was not a
very common pigment used (it was banned in Germany for wallpapers
use already in 1878). So you would find this mostly in object from
the 19th century and not after.</p>
<p>Here is a good source about this pigment (in German, but you can
use some translation tool):
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://materialarchiv.ch/de/ma:material_954?type=all">https://materialarchiv.ch/de/ma:material_954?type=all</a></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Hope this solves the mystery!</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>All the best,</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 24.09.25 um 20:57 schrieb John E
Simmons:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAF7GCDb1_ZwSnGN5J1MMecpB_dB6we7mi_r=OXJwd2zbto-=2Q@mail.gmail.com">
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<div
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class="gmail_default">Jessica,</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"
class="gmail_default">Although arsenic exposure is a
possibility, I think it is far more likely that the fluid
specimen was stored in a copper container. I have seen the
same color green in anuran skeletons stored in copper
containers. There were a number of substances added to fluid
preservatives that stained specimens green (e.g., alum).</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
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<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"
class="gmail_default">If you know anyone who has an
arsenic test kit you could probably confirm whether it is
arsenic green. The test kits are relatively easy to use.</div>
<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"
class="gmail_default"><br>
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<div
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"
class="gmail_default">--John</div>
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<div dir="ltr"><font
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style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">John E. Simmons<br>
Writer and Museum
Consultant</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font
size="2"><span
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Museologica<br>
<i>and</i><br>
Research
Associate, Earth
and Mineral
Sciences Museum
& Art Gallery</span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font
size="2"><span
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Penn State University</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2"><span
style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><i>and</i></span></font></div>
<div dir="ltr"><font
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style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Investigador Asociado,
Departamento de
Ornitologia<br>
Museo de Historia
Natural,
Universidad
Nacional Mayor de
San Marcos, Lima</span></font><br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Sep 24, 2025 at
2:35 PM Tir, Jessica K <<a
href="mailto:jessica.tir@wsu.edu" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">jessica.tir@wsu.edu</a>>
wrote:<br>
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Hi all,</div>
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style="font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
There is a mint green razorbill skeleton in our
collection. The particular shade of green reminds me of
arsenic-based pigments like Paris/Scheele's green. I’m
wondering if any of you have encountered a green skeleton
like this or have guesses about what happened here?</div>
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style="font-family:Aptos,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
This bird was collected in 1951 and preserved in fluid
until 1968 when it was converted to a skeleton. I don’t
have any other information about what chemicals or
treatments were applied to the specimen.</div>
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<br>
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Thoughts?</div>
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Best,</div>
<div dir="ltr"
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Jess</div>
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<p
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style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(166,15,45)"><b>Jessica Tir
</b></span><span
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<p
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style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;color:rgb(77,77,77)">Charles
R. Conner Museum</span></p>
<p
style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt"><span
style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;color:rgb(77,77,77)">School
of Biological Sciences</span></p>
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style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt"><span
style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:9pt;color:rgb(77,77,77)">Washington
State University</span></p>
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style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:11pt"><span
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href="mailto:jessica.tir@wsu.edu"
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