[Nhcoll-l] Dried lizard?

[Simon Moore]

Hi Tonya,

I would second Dirk’s comments as they cover the problems but I would also add a few crystals of menthol as a fungus preventer.  Do monitor it (no pun intended!) from time to time, as there may still be fat residues, especially around the tail area, that can cause the skin tissue to shrivel slightly and spoil the appearance. 

With all good wishes, Simon

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian,
www.natural-history-conservation.com



> On 4 Apr 2023, at 06:42, Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de> wrote:
> 
> Hi Tonya,
> 
> that depends a bit on the circumstances of storage. Even though the lizard was dry in a dry, aerated environment, it not necessarily means it stays dry indoors and would not decay. A second question is how large the specimen is - and perhaps how fatty, if you want to keep it as a dry specimen
> 
> While it usually is not a huge problem keeping millions of specimens dry if they are small enough (entomology), you still need to keep them shielded against climatic effects inside the storage room.
> 
> Not long before I left the museum in Munich, we received 50 kg of confiscated, sun-dried shark fins that were intercepted on their way from a Central American country to an Asian country. After shock-freezing and treating the fins in 2 freezing/thawing cycles at below -25°C for several weeks in open boxes to get rid of some obvious pest issues, I bagged them in strong PE foil in the -25°C room and immediately heat sealed the bags in the adjacent cooling room (+4°C), adding a pre-packed silica-gel net bag into each fin bag. Heat sealing them frozen in basically frozen air-condition removed further humidity (fins were basically freeze-dried). The fins were all individualised and tissue samples had been removed for molecular identification to evaluate their CITES status.
>      
> Sorted bags with fins of an indefinite number of specimens were then placed into large ground stopper jars (including recycling cracked jars which no longer could be used for fluid storage but still would shield the bags from rH shifts in the storage room and would keep pests out). Bags were placed on small meshes for keeping them well elevated above the container bottom to support pest monitoring.
> 
> Several years back, we received an very rare but large fish from Africa which also in fact was a mummy (> 60cm), and we treated it in a very similar way (freezing to remove pest, bagging and heat sealing, placing it then in a tall glass cylinder. Specimen was very stable all the year without any obvious deterioration.
>    
> Hope this helps
> 
> With best wishes
> Dirk
> 
> 
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>  
> 
> Am 04.04.2023 um 04:52 schrieb Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace):
>> Hi everyone,
>> 
>> We just received a large lizard specimen that is desiccated... apparently it sat for a month under a bush in the desert this summer before it was retrieved. It smells a little but is basically totally dry and not in bad shape, considering. Not eaten and not rotten. I'm wondering if anyone might have suggestions for the best way to keep it in the collections? It's an important record so we definitely want to keep it, and it's in good enough shape I don't want to skeletonise it. Perhaps dry it out some more in a fume hood and then keep it in a jar dry? I thought that might contain any smells, but I don't want to risk it going mouldy.  Any thoughts appreciated! 
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Tonya 
>> 
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> 
> -- 
> ****
>  Dirk Neumann
> Collection Manager, Hamburg
>  Postal address:
> Museum of Nature Hamburg
> Leibniz Institute for the Analysis
> of Biodiversity Change
> Dirk Neumann
> Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3
> 20146 Hamburg
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> d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de
> www.leibniz-lib.de
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>  
> -- 
> Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
> Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany
> 
> Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
> Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
> Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn
> Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.