ABOVE: WIKIPEDIA, FILIPE MILANEZ
As a fire blazed at the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on Sunday (September 2), Paulo Buckup and other museum staff dove into the burning building to rescue whatever specimens they could grab. A technician responsible for the shellfish collection at the museum led them through the dark to save the precious shells—representatives of their species that were used for the original descriptions of the animals in South America, some of which are now extinct. Fortunately, Buckup and the others made it out safely, along with the shells, but countless other precious items perished.
As the fifth largest museum in the world, the Museu Nacional housed more than 20 million items, including dinosaur bones, early human remains, unique indigenous objects, a vast collection of corals, Egyptian mummies and artefacts, invertebrate specimens, seashells, and more. But most of this cultural and scientific treasure may ...
