Plastination in museum activity preserving and disseminating the memory of the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest

Abstract

Plastination is a technique for preserving biological tissue, whose basic principle is the replacement of body fluids with a curable polymer. The tissue is not only preserved for an undefined time, but also remains inert, realistic, and free of decomposing agents. Given the advantages provided, plastination can generate many benefits to museum exhibitions of life sciences and related areas. In this sense, the Life Sciences Museum establishes itself as the only one in the world to produce exhibitions with wild animal specimens
of Brazilian fauna plastinated and, in addition, there are no reports in the literature on the use of this type of
specimen in exhibitions, indicating its advantages and limitations. The animals’ specimens used in this project
were: Crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous), adult head and cub tapir (Tapirus terrestres), Margay (Leopardus
wiedii), Crab-eating raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus), common sloth (Bradypus variegatus), coati (Nasua nasua), paca (Cuniculus paca), White-barred Piculet (Picumnus cirratus) and harpy feather (Harpia harpyj). These were presented in four different exhibitions: the “Diversity of Vertebrates” in Venda Nova do Imigrante (VNI) (ES), “The Soul of the World - Leonardo 500 years” at the National Library (RJ), “The Metric of the Human Body” at Federal University of Espirito Santo and “Meet!” at the Federal University of Espirito Santo Biology Week event. In view of the results obtained, plastination proved to be a precious and facilitating tool for scientific and environmental education, with greater security and ease of transportation, planning and execution of exhibitions, with emphasis on itinerants.