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Scientists Found Flesh-Eating Superworms Can Clean Skeletons for Museums

Researchers found that superworms can strip tissue from animal carcasses quickly while leaving delicate bones mostly intact.

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There aren’t many people on Earth with a legitimate need for fast, efficient ways to clean skeletons. Count museum workers among the few. Curators and researchers constantly need perfectly cleaned skeletons for scientific research, education, and exhibits. According to a new study published in PLOS One, they may have a new bone-cleaning superweapon: superworms.

These are flesh-eating larvae, commonly sold as reptile food, that can strip animal carcasses down to clean bone in anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, depending on the animal’s size. Researchers from Iran and Germany tested the larvae on everything from tiny bats and mice to........

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