Odd Embalmed Animal Specimens We Saw at Chicago’s Field Museum
I’ve been visiting the museum since I was 9 years old, but I’ve never seen its hidden collection of 11 million wet specimens until now.
Myles Tang/Dad
It’s primarily scientists allowed to access the collection, so it was a real treat to browse the stacks of odd animals as a visitor.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
Researchers embalm animals and store them in ethanol for future research. It’s the closest they can get to keep a living zoo on hand.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
Since wet specimens are kept in highly-flammable alcohol, the ceiling over the collection is explosion resistant to protect the museum.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
An ideal alcohol ratio of 70% keeps specimens as true to life for as long as possible. This shielded worm lizard is almost 200 years old and hasn’t changed much.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
I got the chance to see Assistant Collections Manager Josh Mata add a new specimen to the collection — a female Komodo dragon.
Clancy Morgan/Insider, Abby Tang/Insider
It takes weeks to prepare a large Komodo dragon. She joined two other female dragons in a custom-made tank filled with alcohol.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
Over time, leaching debris and fatty oils from the specimen turn the alcohol amber, but the color doesn’t affect the quality.
Abby Tang/Insider
Chinese and Japanese giant salamanders fill another tank. Thanks to the salamanders’ genus, andrias, Mata calls this extra smiley one “Andre.”
Clancy Morgan/Insider
This hammerhead bat’s huge nose makes it perfect for wet preservation. If its skin dried out, it would be much more difficult to study its schnoz.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
Most specimens in the wet collection are kept looking as life-like as possible, but these altered fish serve a specific purpose.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
When researchers want to look at the skeleton of small fish, they’ll clear the tissue and dye its cartilage and bones, a process called diaphonization.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
Many specimens are one-of-a-kind. This endangered Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtle is alone in the collection; the museum will probably never get another.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
Even abundant specimens like common water snakes have some interesting features. Those pale pink lumps are the snake’s two penises and have been preserved for easy identification.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
And if species-specific collections get too big, the museum might consolidate them. You’re looking at 883 frogs, all in one tank.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
When researchers want to study a specific frog, they have to go through them one-by-one.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
The museum even keeps some valuable specimens under lock and key. This rare spider-tailed horned viper was used to describe a brand-new species.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
On the other hand, the specimens in this tank are ambassadors for the rest of the collection.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
These are shown to private tour groups as samples of the wild things at the museum. Like this bonnethead shark, the only known omnivorous shark species.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
The tank also contains electric eels, which aren’t actually eels but are a type of knife fish. Don’t worry, they can only shock you when alive.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
These huge catfish are part of the doradid family, also known as talking catfish or thorny catfish, thanks to the bony, sharp lumps on the fish’s side.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
There are some downsides to the wet preservation method. In life, this lancet fish looks like it’s covered in chrome. But alcohol stripped it of that vibrancy.
Clancy Morgan/Insider
I still love visiting the Field Museum to see old mainstays like Sue the T. rex, but going behind the scenes is something I’ll never forget and hope to do again.
Myles Tang/Dad