Blue whale heart
This is a 440-pound blue whale heart. Scientists conducted a first of its kind preservation effort - plastination - to salvage it from a decomposing body.
What is Plastination?
Plastination is a preservation method to generate non-toxic anatomical specimens, which can be used for long-term educational purposes.
Article:
https://www.wired.com/story/how-scientists-preserved-a-440-pound-blue-whale-heart
Photo: Courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum
#biodiversity #bluewhale #plastination
Is this on display somewhere?
ReplyDeleteAbout the plastination, in the 18th century under the reign of Louis XV and Louis XVI, the French anatomist Honoré Fragonard realized 21 Écorchés (flayed figures), using dessiccation before injections of sheep tallow in the vascular system then coating with a resin, the results are equivalent though the dessiccation looses the proportions of the organs.
ReplyDeleteHe was a cousin of the painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
Read also: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/227604685_fig7_Figure-7-Honore-Fragonard's-18th-century-whole-body-preservation-representing-Samson
en.wikipedia.org - Honoré Fragonard - Wikipedia
Danny Quizon , this is on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.
ReplyDeleteCorina Marinescu Thank you! It's quite impressive!
ReplyDeleteImpressive
ReplyDelete