Here you can find our current research: brand-new information from botany, entomology, paleontology and zoology. The latest research results are briefly presented here and provide an insight into our work as a research museum. Information about our main research topics can be found on the pages of the respective research departments.
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Bone deep – Skeletal cleaning with superworms
Ein echtes Vogelskelett, montiert auf einer flachen Holzscheibe vor einem blauen Hintergrund
Picture: M. Monfared
Complete skeletons and individual bones are an integral part of the exhibitions and collections in natural history museums and also play an important role in research. However, removing the bones from an animal carcass cleanly and undamaged, while maintaining the skeletons’ natural anatomical shape, is not at all easy.
An international team of scientists, in cooperation with Dr Niloofar Alaei Kakhki from the Stuttgart Museum of Natural History, has now found a method for the effective, low-cost and low-risk skeleton cleaning of animal carcasses using larvae of the darkling beetle Zophobas morio, also called “superworms”.
