{"id":27705,"date":"2025-05-13T21:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T21:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27705"},"modified":"2025-05-13T22:26:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T22:26:04","slug":"behind-a-museum-door-these-beetles-are-eating-flesh-for-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27705","title":{"rendered":"Behind a Museum Door, These Beetles Are Eating Flesh for Science"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deep in the labyrinth of the American Museum of Natural History, past the giant suspended blue whale and the first floor\u2019s Alaska brown bears, is an unobtrusive locked door. On it, there is a small sign.<\/p>\n

\u201cBug Colony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Behind the door, accessible only to a handful of museum employees, thousands of flesh-eating dermestid beetles toil around the clock handling a task of specimen preparation that even the museum\u2019s best trained specialists cannot.<\/p>\n

They eat the meat off animal skeletons, leaving only clean bones behind.<\/p>\n

Since many skeletons are too fine to be cleaned by human hands, the museum\u2019s osteological preparation team turns to the six-legged staffers to prepare them for research and display.<\/p>\n

The work is carried out in three gray wooden boxes the size of footlockers that house the colony. They are lined with stainless steel and their flip-up tops reveal beetles swarming the earthly remains of various small animals, mostly birds. They feast upon the gobbets of flesh clinging to the carcasses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The room is pervaded by the soft, crackling sound of gnawing. \u201cIt sounds like something frying, or Rice Krispies when you add milk,\u201d said Rob Pascocello, the colony\u2019s tender.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Those few who pass through the bug colony’s unassuming door enter are entering a cloister of eternal mastication. <\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Deep in the labyrinth of the American Museum of Natural History, past the giant suspended blue whale and the first floor\u2019s Alaska brown bears, is an unobtrusive locked door. On it, there is a small sign.\u201cBug Colony.\u201dBehind the door, accessible only to a handful of museum employees, thousands of flesh-eating dermestid beetles toil around the clock handling a task of specimen preparation that even the museum\u2019s best trained specialists cannot.They eat the meat off animal skeletons, leaving only clean bones behind.Since many skeletons are too fine to be cleaned by human hands, the museum\u2019s osteological preparation team turns to the six-legged staffers to prepare them for research and display.The work is carried out in three gray wooden boxes the size of footlockers that house the colony. They are lined with stainless steel and their flip-up tops reveal beetles swarming the earthly remains of various small animals, mostly birds. They feast upon the gobbets of flesh clinging to the carcasses.The room is pervaded by the soft, crackling sound of gnawing. \u201cIt sounds like something frying, or Rice Krispies when you add milk,\u201d said Rob Pascocello, the colony\u2019s tender.Those few who pass through the bug colony’s unassuming door enter are entering a cloister of eternal mastication. <\/p>\n

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