Category Archives: Tools of the trade

Whale composting: Letting bacteria do the hard work of specimen defleshing

Posted on May 1, 2019 by

Marie-Hélène Hubert reports that when it comes to preparing 40-year-old, formalin-preserved whale specimens, composting is a collection staffer’s best friend. Continue reading →

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Going digital: Putting the museum’s impressive library collection online

Posted on January 24, 2018 by

These beautiful books are scientific gems, and now they’re just a click away. The Canadian Museum of Nature’s library staff are digitizing the museum’s rare and unique publications to make them available online to Canadians, and visitors from around the world. Now you can check out amazing, colourful hand-drawings of Newfoundland insects, and the diversity of Churchill, Manitoba’s flowers, all from the comfort of your home (or on the bus on the way to work, or in a café, or….) Continue reading →

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All Fired Up!

Posted on July 13, 2016 by

Administrative Assistant Lory Beaudoin has discovered an unexpected aspect of her job: accompanying museum scientists to the firing range! Continue reading →

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Museum Metabolism

Posted on July 7, 2016 by

Like animals and plants, museums have a “metabolism”. Do you know how it functions? Continue reading →

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Setting Up House: Acquiring and Caring for Live Beetles

Posted on June 2, 2016 by

What’s involved in getting the live beetles into the museum for exhibition? Overseas shipping, custom housing and a gentle touch are just some of the requirements outlined by animal-care technician Stuart Baatnes. Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Animals in Our Galleries, Exhibitions, Live animals at the museum, Tools of the trade | Tagged | 5 Comments

Spiclypeus shipporum, the New Dino in Town

Posted on May 20, 2016 by

It’s not every day a palaeontologist introduces a new dinosaur species to the world! Jordan Mallon tells the story of “Judith”, the new horned dinosaur that he recently identified at the museum with colleagues. Continue reading →

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Catharine Parr Traill Herbarium Scrapbook Gets Careful Conservation Treatment

Posted on January 6, 2016 by

How do we preserve plant specimens that are more than a century old? Erika Range describes her conservation work on the precious collection of a celebrated botanist and Canadian pioneer. Continue reading →

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How to Keep Skeletons Clean—Just Spit on Them!

Posted on October 29, 2015 by

Researcher Scott Rufolo tells us about some sometimes surprising techniques that he learned for cleaning bones that will be added to the museum’s collections or used in our research projects. Continue reading →

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Shrinking the World to Talk about Nature

Posted on October 22, 2015 by

Internet technologies helped biologist Paul Hamilton give a talk about conservation to university students in Indonesia without leaving his lab in Canada. Continue reading →

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Nature Inside and Out

Posted on July 24, 2015 by

How are species identified? Let us tell you about some indispensable tools. Continue reading →

Posted in Collections, Research, Tools of the trade | Tagged | 1 Comment