Ta xidermy is a general term describing the different methods of skin ning and preserving vertebrate skins by stuffi ng or mounting them over an artificial armature. Using old taxidermy handbooks and docu ments, we can fo llow the history of taxidermy, the evolution of tan ning recipes, and stuffing/mounting techniques over three centuries. In addition, when all the historical preservation information is collected , it can give us some clues toward understanding the current conservation status of this type of collection.
One essential step of museum and clinical specimen preservation is immersion in a fixative fluid to prevent degradation. Formalin is the most largely used fixative, but its benefit is balanced with its toxic and carcinogenic status. Moreover, because formalin-fixation impairs nucleic acids recovery and quality, current museum wet collections and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded clinical samples do not represent optimal tanks of molecular information. Our study has been developed to compare formalin to two alternative fixatives (RCL2® and ethanol) in a context of molecular exploitation. Based on a unique protocol, we created mammalian fixed collections, simulated the impact of time on preservation using an artificial ageing treatment and followed the evolution of specimens' DNA quality. DNA extraction yield, purity, visual integrity and qualitative and quantitative ability to amplify the Cox1 gene were assessed. Our results show that both RCL2 and ethanol exhibit better performances than formalin. They do not impair DNA extraction yield, and more importantly, DNA alteration is delayed over the preservation step. The use of RCL2 or ethanol as fixative in biological collections may insure a better exploitation of the genetic resources they propose.
While receiving remarkable animals as presents was a common practice among European monarchs, the rhinoceros of Louis XV (Rhinoceros unicornis) became one of the most famous. The live male Indian rhinoceros was a gift to the King from Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, French governor of Chandannagar in West Bengal. It left Calcutta on 22 December 1769, and arrived in the port of Lorient, Brittany, six months later on 11 June 1770. From there it was transported to the royal menagerie in Versailles, which had been built in response to increasing interest in zoology and Louis XIV's passion for the exotic, in 1664. When the rhinoceros died in 1793, having been in captivity in France for more than 20 years, its skeleton and stuffed hide were preserved and have been held since then in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris. Here it remains on exhibition as an almost three-hundred year old relic of R. unicornis, an invaluable source for museum studies and the history of taxidermy. Why the original horn of this rhinoceros was replaced by a much longer one, and why, in turn, this was replaced by a short one is discussed.
Articles MANSUR María Estela et Raquel PIQUÉ HUERTA 2009 « Between the forest and the sea: hunter-gatherer occupations in the subantarctic forests in Tierra del Fuego (Argentina) », Arctic Anthropology, 46 (1-2), p. 144-157. DE ANGELIS Hernán H. et María Estela MANSUR 2010 « Artefactos de vidrio en contextos cazadores-recolectores. Consideraciones a partir del análisis tecnológico y funcional »,
Para la salvaguarda del patrimonio documental se han puesto en marcha importantes proyectos de digitalización de fondos documentales de numerosas instituciones públicas y privadas de todo el mundo. Ello con dos objetivos: ampliar el acceso libre de dichos fondos a una comunidad de usuarios cada día mayor, y ayudar a la preservación de los documentos originales. Sin embargo, el particular caso de pandemia global producido desde 2020, que ha obligado a una gran parte de la población mundial al confinamiento, e impedido el acceso a los repositorios materiales, nos obliga a una serie de reflexiones con respecto a la viabilidad de los proyectos de desmaterialización de la información, en función de la nueva cotidianeidad. En este trabajo presentamos el proyecto ARTEFAC (ARchivar, TiErra del Fuego según Anne Chapman), que concierne a un tipo particular de patrimonio documental, lo que denominamos los archivos de la ciencia, a partir del ejemplo de los archivos de la investigadora Anne Chapman (1922-2010), quien dedicó gran parte de su vida a la investigación sobre los pueblos originarios del extremo sur americano.
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