LIFESIZE ALTERATIONS

BY PAUL RHYMER AND JOHN MATTHEWS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL RHYMER

IN 1997, a businessman pledged millions of dollars to renovate the Smithsonian Institution Museum of Natural History Mammal Hall. Many specimens needed repair, and both the science and exhibits were many decades old. The new exhibit will show mammal diversity, mammals' adaptation to different ecosystems, different mammal families, and what makes mammals different than other animals. The dynamic new mammal hall will open in the fall of 2003.

Here is the story of only one of the many mammal renovation projects
by Smithsonian taxidermists Paul Rhymer and John Matthews.

ALTERING A FEMALE ORYX
One thing that makes mammals different from other animals is that they nurse their young. We remounted an existing female scimitar-horned oryx to be nursing a calf.

1. The female had already been mounted in a running position, while the calf was a new skin that had never been mounted.

2. The first task was to remount the female in a standing pose. The skin was rehydrated and removed from the form (another article perhaps).

3-4. The form was ready for altering. The first thing to do was to draw the bones on the form to keep in mind where the different alterations could go. This helped guide the cuts in the form. Once the form was on the mounting stand, the head was removed at the neck-body junction. The front legs were cut and moved into the standing position. To hold the cut pieces into place, we used...

...Continued in the Spring 2003 Issue of Breakthrough.

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