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Grant Museum of Zoology
February 2013
Exhibition
The Micrarium is a place for tiny things - somewhere to come and explore the microscopic specimens at the Grant Museum of Zoology.
It鈥檚 often said that 95% of known animal species are smaller than your thumb, but have you noticed how most museums fill their displays with big animals? The Micrarium听is a new permenant display that intends to right this wrong. Converting听an old office/storeroom into a beautiful back-lit cave,听The Micrarium allows the Museum to听display听some of the tiniest specimens in the collection, on wall-to-wall microscope slides.
Over 2000 slides are on display in The Micrarium, lining the walls from floor to ceiling and set against light boxes. The specimens include:
- 鈥滾egs of fleas showing muscles鈥�, strangely arranged on the slide to be reminiscent of the Isle of Man coat of arms.
- Whole squid, just a couple of millimetres long
- Beetles which have been sliced along their entire length, through the antennae, head, legs and body. 1/10th of a millimetre thick.
Scattered amongst the miniature creatures are a handful of tiny pieces of giant animals on microscope slides, including whales, mammoths and giraffes.
The Micrarium was part of a development project funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.
