现代世界的博物馆20

We must secure every part of the fossil with a special wax if we're to prevent the rubber mould from pulling this priceless specimen apart. This wishbone is like the most fragile part of the specimen. As you can see, there is no matrix underneath. There is absolutely paper thin, absolutely paper thin. So if anything is going to give on this, it's going to be that, so what I have to is really really carefully. Put some of the wax underneath to protect it, as we don't want the rubber going. What'd happen if we didn't do this? When you pull the mould up, it would just come away in pieces, and then you'd never really put it back again properly, it would never be the same. I'll keep away then. You keep away from it. You'll be fine, Kate. Can you see my hands? Recent conservation work on archaeopteryx removed stone from the edges of this slab, so the museum's current mould is out of date. Last year, I actually changed the look of this specimen, and every time we do that we want to make a permanent record of that. The new mould will also be used to make replicas of archaeopteryx so that natural history museums around the world can have their own copy of this special fossil.

我们将用特制蜡加固整个标本，以保证取模时不会损毁这无价之宝。这块许愿骨是标本上最易损坏的部分。西方习俗，二人执禽类胸部叉骨拉扯，折得较长一段者可如愿以偿。你可以看到，下面完全没有支撑。而且这骨头真的是薄如纸，稍有不慎，很容易被折断，所以我得小心翼翼地用蜡垫住它，保护它，以免取模时出问题。 会有什么问题呢？ 不这样，取模时它就会碎裂，再怎么修补，也无济于事都没法恢复原状。 那我别插手了。 你离得够远了。 你没问题的，凯特。 看我手抖得。 近期的始祖鸟标本维护，移去了切片外围的石块，因此博物馆存模需要更新。 去年我维护后，标本表面形状改变了。每次标本变样，我们都要取模记录。 新模型也会用于复制标本，这样世界各地的自然史博物馆都能展出这块珍贵化石的副本。