Watch time-lapse of bird-eating beetles strip avian flesh for science

Рет қаралды 1,110

2 ай бұрын

The Natural History Museum in Tring, UK, houses one of the world's largest collections of bird specimens. The archive of skins, eggs, nests and bones is unrivaled, cared for by expert curators in state-of-the-art facilities. However, one extraordinary staff member works in darkness 24 hours a day for no financial reward. Whilst others sleep, the museum's dermestid beetle colonies are hard at work eating the flesh and feathers from dead birds brought to the collection, readying it to be stored as bones.
"Preparing anatomical specimens can be quite long and drawn out, "says Joanne Cooper, the senior curator of avian anatomical collections
at NHM Tring. "With the beetles, the tiny
stages that they go through means that they can clean into
all the nooks and crannies in a way that a human couldn't
physically manage."
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Пікірлер: 8

@bevgordon7619 2 ай бұрын

And it looks like the beetles leave the feathers alone, which could be a bonus for archiving along with the skeleton

@elshaddai3182 2 ай бұрын

5 Star Beetle Hotel. I Like That

@Ninth_Penumbra 2 ай бұрын

This is just a fascinating idea. Domesticating an animal to perform a service is hardly a new idea, but despite the staggering ubiquity of insects (especially beetles!), apart from a few rare outliers (such as bees, silkworms & shellac beetles) humans tend to simply view them as pests rather than potentially useful partners. I wonder what other uses we could find for insects..? I'm curious if there are detectable "tooth" (mandible/maxillae?) marks on the bones of the prepared bones and if they consume the cartilage & bone-connective tissues as well as the muscles & organs?

@karo98k 2 ай бұрын

Maggot therapy. Using fly maggots who only eat dead flesh to remove necrotic tissue from a wound to prevent sepsis. They are more accurate than a scalpel.

@NewScientist 2 ай бұрын

Learn more about the bird collection at Tring: www.newscientist.com/video/2431887-auks-darwins-finches-and-a-mummified-falcon-inside-nhm-bird-archive/

@eliakimjosephsophia4542 2 ай бұрын

I bought a copy of New Scientist last week, it was so full of woke articles, it wasn't worth the price and not a single article attracted me to read any of it fully. Very disappointing NS. NO TO ZERO agenda.

@truckcompany 2 ай бұрын

"That happened"