Mystery of the missing bone: museum finds lost hind leg of South African zebra which is world's rarest skeleton

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

The mysterious disappearance of a bone from a 19th century quagga skeleton has been solved at the Grant Museum of Zoology

Having mysteriously disappeared more than 60 years ago, the search for a missing part of the world’s rarest skeleton is finally complete.

The hind left leg of the quagga, a species of South African zebra hunted to extinction in 1883, has been curiously missing from London's Grant Museum of Zoology since World War II. But thanks to modern technology, the skeleton can once more stand tall.

A CT scan of the right hind leg was taken at the Royal Veterinary College to create an exact mirror-image of the missing appendage, before the computer image was modelled in solid nylon using a 3D printer to recreate the bone.

Specialist skeleton-preperator Nigel Larkin then articulated it to complete the skeleton for the first time in decades.

“Because of its age the quagga was in a pretty poor state, particularly for such an irreplaceable object,” says Jack Ashby, the Museum Manager.

“Through our Bone Idols project, we have worked with specialist bone conservators to restore the skeleton to ensure its long-term survival in the Museum.”

The project, Bone Idols: Protecting our Iconic Skeletons, has so far restored 31 of 39 of the largest and most significant skeletons in the museum, including the largest – the (hornless) Indian one-horned rhino, the skull of a giant deer and endangered chimpanzees, thanks to £20,000 of donations.

According to curators, “its breast bones had been oozing black fatty deposits, which have now been removed.”

“It will now be enjoyed by visitors, students and researchers for decades to come,” adds Ashby. “We are so delighted that we’ve been able to give it its missing leg back.

“Not only does it add a fantastic chapter to a specimen with so many stories, but the new leg also makes the whole skeleton more stable.

“Try balancing on three legs for 100 years.”


The quagga’s story:

• The quagga has been completely disassembled and cleaned of up to 100 years of grime. The museum is the oldest in the country, and used to be lit by oil burning lamps.
  
  
• The importance of the specimen was not clear until 1972 when it was properly identified alongside a similar-looking skeleton, which turned out to be a donkey.
  
  
• The quagga was originally mounted with five other skeletons in 1911, 30 years after its extinction, for £14 - approximately £1,470 today.
  
  
• Its neck was upside down, its legs did not fit in their sockets, and there was a distinct sagging, exacerbated by the skeletons’ lack of a leg for such a length of time.

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Three museums to see natural history collections in:

Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Cambridge
The Main Gallery of the Museum is housed in a large hall with Jacobean hammer-beam roof-trusses, built in 1618 as the first Cambridge Free School. Other galleries include 'discover', which displays a wide array of scientific instruments, the new Victorian Parlour, with plenty of handling activities for children, and the Reserve Gallery, which is open during school holidays.

Booth Museum of Natural History, Hove
More than half a million specimens, natural history literature and data extending back over three centuries are housed in this fascinating museum, including hundreds of British birds displayed in recreated natural settings.

Natural History Museum at Tring, Hertfordshire
A fascinating range of animals, collected by Lionel Walter Rothschild, in a beautiful Victorian Museum. Home to the world-class research and collections of the Natural History Museum's Bird Group.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/science-and-nature/dinosaurs-and-fossils/art532927-mystery-missing-bone-museum-finds-lost-hind-leg-south-african-zebra-world-rarest-skeleton