Black bones from which fat dripped, and a flat-shaped skull that pointed to the window. This is what the second largest whale skeleton exhibition in the Czech Republic looked like before restorers decided to save it. Now the skeletons in the Museum of the Anatomy Institute are not only facing the entrance, the bones are also brightly colored and smell good.

The aim of the restoration was to clean the nearly eight-meter skeleton of dirt and grease on the bone, thereby preventing degradation and fungus. “First the bones have to be documented, then they get rid of the biggest impurities. The next step is lye to get the fat inside the bones. Drying is followed, and finally fertilization so that it doesn’t crumble,” explains Andrej Shbat of the Charles University College of Medicine 1st Institute of Anatomy.

Although this whale skeleton did not reach half the length of the Czech Republic’s largest rat skeleton at the National Museum, it is unique in the world for the soft tissue remains that remain to this day.

“The skeleton is complete, apart from intervertebral discs with ligaments, a cartilaginous nasal septum, fin and skin remains, as well as the remains of the pelvis and hind limbs, which is one piece of evidence that the animal moved earlier on land. ,” said Andrej Shbat.

“In the whale’s limbs, we can observe what we call deformation. From a developmental point of view, it had an ancestor that came from water, then moved to land, where they adapted, and finally gradually returned to life in the sea,” explains his colleague. Ivo Klepáček of the Institute of Anatomy.

The whale skeleton weighs about 350 kilograms. Initially, however, the animal weighed up to six tons. DNA analysis of samples taken during the restoration, the results of which will be available in June, will determine which flounder species are specific.

According to anatomists, it is most likely a small flounder or southern flounder, which are very similar. “These flounders are still alive, they are not an endangered species, although they have been hunted for their fat and meat in the past,” Shbat added.

Prudencia 97, the Academy of Fine Arts, the Silesian Museum in Opava and the Institute of Chemical Technology for the Restoration of the ICT Institute in Prague took part in the restoration.

The skeleton may have been found in the institute’s buildings since the second half of the 19th century, but the most recent evidence of its existence dates back to 1923. Precise information about the institute’s pre-1945 history is missing.

With the advent of World War II, the institute was transformed into a department of the study of racial purity, which operated until 1945. In the same year, Prague was bombed and shards of flat glass fell on the institute’s frame from the institute’s windows. After nearly eighty years, they were found on the upper side of the spine by restorers.

Not only the whale skeleton, but also the anatomy museum itself will be renovated. Charles University’s First Medical Faculty Anatomical Institute plans to unify and modernize lighting, as well as transform the concept of the museum, which serves as a teaching collection for medical students, the Faculty of Science, Charles University and much of the Czech Republic. and foreign high schools.