[Nhcoll-l] Skeleton preservation

[Simon Moore]

Bad smells from specimens - there are products used in taxidermy such as OdorXit which apparently work well although I haven’t needed to try them as yet!

With all good wishes, Simon

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian.

www.natural-history-conservation.com


> On 12 Nov 2024, at 12:23, Sergio Montagud <sergio.montagud at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Kairo,
> 
> Thank you for your response. The skeleton is not from a reptile; it’s from an Asiatic lion. The bones appear to be very white and somewhat with  fat (I’ve attached a picture), but the smell is too strong to place them in the preservation room. Currently, all the pieces are outside, waiting for the odor to dissipate. I wonder if there is a product that could eliminate the smell, such as ammonia, but after applying (immersion) it for seven consecutive days, I haven’t achieved good results, and I don’t want to risk degrading the bones with chemicals.
>  Sergio
>   De: Kairo Z <hezhu1 at gmail.com>
> Fecha: viernes, 8 de noviembre de 2024, 17:08
> Para: Sergio Montagud <sergio.montagud at gmail.com>
> Asunto: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Skeleton preservation
> Can you take some pictures of them? Snakes in general do not tend to have a lot of fat in the bone. So I'm wondering it may be due to something else like moisture, or a past preparation technique. Is there any staining?
>  On Fri, Nov 8, 2024, 6:06 AM Sergio Montagud <sergio.montagud at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good morning,
> This is a query for those working in skeleton preservation. We have some recently acquired, disarticulated specimens prepared by different taxidermists. The issue is that some of them, especially the larger ones, still emit a very unpleasant odor that we haven’t been able to remove, even by soaking them in water with ammonia. Is there an effective and proven method for eliminating this bad smell from the bones, which I assume is caused by residual fat still trapped in them?
> Thank you very much.
> Sergio Montagud
> --
> ********************************
> Sergio Montagud Alario
> Museu [UV] Història Natural
> Universitat de València
> e-mail: sergio.montagud at uv.es
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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.