The Natural History Museum has a new exhibition by the well known German anatomists Gunter von Hagen called
Animals Inside Out. We went along yesterday to have a look at their examples of plastination and skeletal structures. The exhibition starts out with a number of stunning presentations of octopuses and sharks like the figurehead (not hammer head!) shark below. With special lighting this really is a stunning exhibit - worth visiting if just for this.
There are also a range of plastinated domestic species demonstrating structure such as the horses lower foot, cervical vertebra. As vets we were pretty sure that the positioning of the cervical vertebra was rather un natural and there seemed to be evidence of some quite severe
spondylosis too. One interesting information panel described the only anatomical difference between a sheep and a goat - have a guess (answers on an email to wikimaster@wikivet.net). The real star piece in this section was the charging bull below - though it looked rather "plastic" to me!
Finally, the last room had some of the larger specimens including the giraffe and the famous elephant. These must have taken years to make and were particularly impressive because muscles had been teased apart to demonstrate vascular supplies and innervation. I had hope to see a few more display items (the skeletons were nothing special) and a few of the horse structures that von Hagens is so famous for - but still well worth the visit.
Interesting, maybe it is less impressive to us who have been involved with animal anatomy one way or another? The general public may find it more educational perhaps.
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