Conservation Research

Current research that involves the Museum conservator and conservation lab

The conservation laboratory is involved with a research group studying Early Carboniferous Tetrapods from the Scottish Borders. These animals are characterised by having four limbs and represent some of the earliest fully terrestrial vertebrates. The laboratory is preparing some of these recently discovered unique fossils. Analysis of the mineral composition of the rock that some of the fossils are preserved in has been carried out in the Department of Earth Sciences, using X-Ray Diffraction. Here you can see a plot showing the mineral composition of one of the specimens. We are interested in this because it will tell us if there any minerals in the rock that could begin to alter and change if the fossil is kept in an unstable environment.

       
   Graph                                                                                       Photo of tetropod skull

You can read more about the project here:http://tetrapods.org



Monday to Friday
10:00 to 13:00 & 14:00 to 17:00

Saturday
10:00 to 16:00

Sunday
Closed 



Oct 8, 2014
DDF Project blog - Conserving Scilla

As part of the Museum's new exciting project arising from the recent award from Arts Council England Designation Development Fund, a project conservator, Rachel Howie, has been working on some of the Museum's most prized specimens with the aim of enhancing digital access to these special objects.
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Sep 5, 2014
Hallucigenia – the claws have it sorted?

One of the most iconic of Cambrian age fossils from the famous Burgess Shale is a little (3.5 cm long) creature called Hallucigenia, which has been the subject of considerable controversy for several decades. Now, researchers, Martin Smith and Javier Ortega-Hernandez from the Department of Earth Sciences have reinvestigated this strange creature and its relationship to other animals.
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