Thread by @NHMLA, While floor-based specimens are normally cleaned twice a year, hanging specimens like [...]

While floor-based specimens are normally cleaned twice a year, hanging specimens like this Morrice's Sperm Whale — or Aulophyseter morricei, a juvenile of an extinct species of sperm whale — found in #NHMLA’s Age of Mammals may go longer due to inaccessibility.

Alan Zdinak

While floor-based specimens are normally cleaned twice a year, hanging specimens like this Morrice's Sperm Whale — or Aulophyseter morricei, a juvenile of an extinct species of sperm whale — found in #NHMLA’s Age of Mammals may go longer due to inaccessibility. Alan Zdinak

Vertebrate Paleontology Fossil Preparators James Preston and Alan Zdinak took advantage of #NHMLA being closed to service these spectacular specimens, giving us a glimpse into the process during a recent visit.

Alan Zdinak

Here, Fossil Preparator James Preston tends to an Allodesmus gracilis — a distant, extinct relative of walruses and sea lions — found in #NHMLA's Age of Mammals.

Alan Zdinak

“Both specimens pictured are about 15 million years old, from the Miocene Epoch, a time when most of California was underwater. Both were found in the Sharktooth Hill formation outside of Bakersfield, in Kern County,” says Zdinak.

Alan Zdinak

“Both specimens pictured are about 15 million years old, from the Miocene Epoch, a time when most of California was underwater. Both were found in the Sharktooth Hill formation outside of Bakersfield, in Kern County,” says Zdinak. Alan Zdinak

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