The curious case of the Dana platypus and what it can teach us about how lead shotgun pellets behave in fluid preserved museum specimens and may limit their scientific value
Fig 5
Museum specimens collected with the shotgun.
(a) X-ray overview of small mammals in the fluid collection of The Natural History Museum of Denmark containing shotgun pellets. Oana = Ornithorhynchus anatinus, Pray = Pteropus rayneri, Pper = Pseudocheirus peregrinus, Cfin = Callosciurus finlaysonii. Six 3 mm lead pellets are shown (middle to the left) for comparison of size with foreign objects in the specimens; (b) Historical shotgun previously housed in the weapons collection of the The Natural History Museum of Denmark. This weapon and the custom made adapter sleeve (red arrow) was used at the Danish Noona Dan Expedition to the Pacific in 1961–62 and the Solomon Islands flying fox (Pray M05-CN2901) was most likely collected using this weapon.