Museum’s skeletons get seal of approval

He was pretty cool, calm and collected — relaxed even — despite being completely naked in front of such a large audience.

Otago Museum natural science curator Emma Burns said it was like nothing could get under his skin.

The skeletal remains of an exceptionally large elephant seal were on display in the museum’s atrium yesterday for all to see, while members of the natural science team catalogued about 200 pieces of its bones.

It gave the public a rare opportunity to learn about the work of the team and to see the enormous scale of an elephant seal up close.

Elephant seals take their name from the large nose of the adult male, reminiscent of an elephant's trunk, and typically reach 5m in length and a weight of 3000kg.

This one was unusually large, reaching about 6m in length and would have weighed about 4000kg.

Miss Burns said the elephant seal was found dead on Long Beach, near Dunedin, in 2011 and its remains were taken in and cleaned by the museum before being put into storage.

"At the moment we are in the cataloguing process, where we go through and check if all the bones are there.

"It’s a bit of a jig-saw puzzle."

About 150 people came in to observe the process.

"He was certainly very relaxed in his laid-out state, despite the attention he was getting."

It was hoped the bones could be put together and put on display in the future, she said.

john.lewis@odt.co.nz