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


Investigating prehistoric poop

For most people, the idea of finding old poo is disgusting, and the idea of dissecting it and sorting through it is even worse! Unless of course you’re a child of a certain age and the poo in question is dinosaur poo.


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Agostino Scilla (1629-1700) Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense

One of the questions most frequently asked by visitors to the Sedgwick Museum is what exactly are fossils and how do they form? This question also fascinated Agostino Scilla (1629-1700); an artist who lived in the Sicilian town of Messina during the 1600s. Scilla attempted to answer this question in his book La vana speculazione disingannata dal senso (Vain Speculation Undeceived by Sense), published in Naples in 1670.
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