A large 19th century fish made an unusual appearance at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital's radiography department when it wa brought in for an x-ray.
Staff from the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter enlisted the help of the hospital in order to see inside the ocean sunfish before beginning important conservation work on the specimen.
The fish was x-rayed early in the morning before patient appointments began.
The 127 year old specimen was caught in the Exe Estuary, donated to the Museum, and was stuffed by the Museum's first curator, William D'Urban.
At some point in its history, a large piece of wire had been inserted, which the museum staff would like to remove in order to conserve the specimen.
"We needed to know how and where the wire had been inserted so that we can remove it without causing further damage to the fish", said Susannah Bartindale, a conservation work placement student from Durham University, currently working at the museum.
"Having examined the x-ray, we believe that the piece of bent wire, looking rather like a coathanger, was probably used to hang the specimen, perhaps to display it on a wall. Now we've been able to see inside the fish, we know the wire is not part of an integral internal frame, so we can carefully remove it and repair the damage it's caused so that this fascinating specimen can remain in the museum for future generations to study."
The fish is of particular interest to the museum because of its great age and local relevance. Mola mola, which is found in tropical and temperate oceans, would have been a very rare find at the time it was caught, although the species is now more frequently found off the south west coast, probably because of climate change.
When the conservation work is complete, D196b, as the fish is known, will be returned to the collections, available once again for study and research.
