Why 11 Million Embalmed Specimens Are Stored In The Field Museum's Basement | Colossal Collections

The Field Museum in Chicago preserves everything from fish and snakes to frogs and Komodo dragons in their basement.

These 11 million fluid specimens are preserved in jars or tanks. Preparing and storing them is a centuries-long commitment, so why do it? This method effectively keeps their shape and, in some cases, even DNA. Not only that, but it has helped researchers do groundbreaking work, like developing new techniques for getting old DNA and discovering new species right among the shelves.

We went to the Field Museum to see how new specimens are added to the ever-growing collection.

0:00 - Intro
0:53 - Acquisition
1:15 - Water Snake
3:40 - Catfish
4:19 - Komodo dragon
4:56 - Diaphonized Fish
6:40 - Spider-Tailed Horned Viper
7:45 - Frogs

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Why 11 Million Embalmed Specimens Are Stored In The Field Museum's Basement | Colossal Collections

[andrewhartmangunsmith]

A Lizard collected in 1838! Wow that's amazing. You guys are what the future generations will depend upon. So all the best from Dallas. Very informative video.

[moammilzafar]

McDonald's tray?? so that's where the meat comes from...

[ahmadahadyar]

Their work is so valuable for science.

[danielbazarnik]

i feel like the mcdonalds tray at 1:20 shows how much gets invested into our museums

[lmfaolol]

imagine you died just to become a display and specimen for centuries

[danomeral]

Woah, cool to see how the Spidertail viper was identified. Ive seen videos of it, they live up high on cliff faces using the little tail to behave like a spider to attract birds to eat. Its cool! Also, seeing that poor water snake on a mcdonalds tray made me laugh. I love snakes, didnt expect youtube to recommend something like this to me lol!!

[alphasky]

I wouldn't be able to walk thru this museum. I would feel creeped out by everything. Feeling like it would jump up and grab me at any point. Props to all of these folks who do this.

[josephsalcido]

I preserved my sand boa like this. Now he is with me forever. Its been over a year and he still looks like the day I injected the formalin. Amazing

[alexsander_at]

As a biologist, I can say that I can smell the formaldehyde from here 😂

[lefty]

The Field Museum is so amazing. Went there on my first and only trip to Chicago. Wish there had been a tour for something like this. The dinosaur collection was worth the visit. Hope more people get the chance to go there

[wandahastings]

We were at the field museum in Chicago just a few months ago. That place is huge and so much to see.

[JaiShreeRam_]

*Takes a pickle out of the jar and eats it*
Everyone in The Field Museum's Basement- 😨😨😨😨

[TedCryptly]

"It's kind of like a library, but jars of fish" is my favorite line from this video.

[MylotheZooLovingScientist]

Ah! The spider-tailed viper! Such an amazing, incredible species! So unbelievable apparently that the Field Museum had one and couldn't tell its lure was actually an insane appendage and not an anomaly. So, so cool to hear this story and see this species spotlighted in this video. The entire video, of course, is brilliant, but the viper was definitely an unexpected treat. Ugh, museum collections never fail to impress me.

[martinchitembo]

I hope in future by extracting their DNA we can bring them back to life with the advancement in technology of stem cells.

[kray]

My college anatomy class did a field trip here. I freaked when the guy pulled out a huge electric eel from the formalin trunk.

[HannahBanana]

I love videos like this where we get to look at animal or rock museums that involve the process of collecting and admiring them all! 😍

[haiseruu]

im surprised they arent coughing from the formalin because of how strong it is. Maybe I'm not used to it because we brought out our preserved frogs the other day and the formalin was really strong it made my nose ache xD

[InesElm-djtn]

They stole mcdonald's tray 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[robertbartosik]

They use a tray from McDonald's lol.