Amazing Facts from The Manchester Museum

amazing facts

from The Manchester M

useum

(F)049-MM-AmazingFacts:Layout 1 4/12/08 11:40

living cultures and the manchester gallery1

fittestWhen Maharajah,

an Asian Elephant, lefthis travelling circus, hewalked with his keeperfrom Edinburgh to BelleVue Zoo. This was adistance of over 200miles and took 10 days.

3

most twinsNigeria holds

the world record innumbers of multiplebirths in the world.The Yoruba peoplefrom that countryhave the highestamount of twinsof any population.

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largestElephants are

the largest livingland animals. MaleAfrican Elephants canweigh over 6 metrictonnes (the same as7,000 bags of sugar)and can stand up to4 metres tall.

4

smokiestMany native North

American groups smoked warpipes before going into battle,sending their prayers to heavenwith the smoke. The pipes onthis war shirt representvictorious battles.

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2

best aimThe Sporting Magazine,

May 1859, featured the storyof a man who could hit aplaying card at 46 metres witha bullet-shooting crossbow.

5

sneakiestThe crossbow was

used to shoot at a target but it could also be hidden underclothing and then used forpoaching or to shoot someone.

6

most painful During WW2 explosive

arrows were used to increaseinjury. Fire, barbed and crescentheaded arrows have also beenused for the same reason.

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archery


3 ancient egypt

heartiestThe ancient

Egyptians wrappedtheir mummifieddead in bandages,and stored theirliver, lungs,intestines andstomach in fourcanopic jars. Theheart was alwaysleft inside thebody, but the brainwas thrown away.

8 featheriestMummies were not

all human. The ancientEgyptians mummifieda wide range of animals,from fully grown bullsto fish. This is a mummifiedsacred ibis (a bird associatedwith the god Thoth).

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most deadOsiris (pronounced

oh-sire-is), the god of thedead, was always shownas a bandaged mummywith his head unwrapped.He wears a crown thatshows he was once kingof Egypt, and carries acrook and flail (whip) inhis crossed arms. He wasone of over 500 Egyptiangods.

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4

funniestThe god Bes,

with his funny face,looked very fierce, buthe cared for womenin childbirth andyoung children andso was loved by theancient Egyptians.

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cattiest This necklace

has 26 tiny amuletsof the cat goddessBast. The ancientEgyptians loved catsand the word for catin ancient hieroglyphsis mew. In the middleis the much largerlion-headed goddessof war, Sekhmet(pronounced sek-met).

12 heaviestThe Museum’s

heaviest object, justinside the Museumentrance, is a pinkgranite column froma temple in northernEgypt. KingRamesses II(pronounced ram-eh-sees) carved hispicture and writingsdeep into the stone,so that no onewould be able to rubthem out.

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rocks and minerals5

brightest The glow given off by fluorescent

minerals is created by the ultra-violet (UV)light they absorb. The word fluorescencecomes from the mineral fluorite whichcommonly glows in this way. Press thebutton near the floor to see our mineralsglow.

16

oldest The meteorite collection

contains the oldest objects in theMuseum. They have been aroundfor a little over 4.5 billion yearsand some are older than theplanet itself.

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weirdest The weirdest object on the

gallery is a boulder weathered bychance into the shape of a head.

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6

cosiestThe Museum has real Mammoth

hair from the last Ice Age (over 10,000years ago). Mammoth hair could growup to 1 metre long so that the animalkept nice and warm despite the verycold climate.

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earliest Our oldest fossil, of

early algae, showsevidence of the beginningof life on earth and is 3.5billion years old.

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rarestThis Plesiosaur

(pronounced plea-see-oh-saw) was the first of itskind to be discovered.Plesiosaurs are reptilesthat lived in the sea at thetime of the dinosaurs.

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pre-historic life


pre-historic life - stan7

toothiestUnlike mammals,

dinosaurs grew new teeththroughout their lifetime.T.rex had a deadly biteand was able to bitethrough even the leg boneof another T.rex.

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king of dinosaursOur T.rex was named after the person whofound him, Stan Sacrison. Tyrannosaurus rexmeans tyrant lizard king.

living relatives?Although Stan is between 65 and 70 millionyears old, many scientists believe therapod(meat-eating) dinosaurs have living relatives– birds. This is due to similarities in feet,bone structure and the way they breathe.


8animal life - the sperm whale

deepest Sperm Whales can dive to more than2,200 metres. This is over a mile deep.

biggest The biggest animal on the gallery

is a Sperm Whale skeleton but this is onlya baby. They can grow up to 19 metres inlength and weigh up to 50 tonnes.

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brainiest Sperm Whales have the largest brain ofany animal, weighing up to 9kg.


animal life 1 - mammals9

The Museum has many stuffed animals, made from the skin of a realanimal stuffed with cotton, plaster and other materials, not to mentionthe spooky glass eyes. Most of the Museum’s stuffed animals date backto 1860-1900, so it is not surprising that some of them show their age.Many of these animals would have been killed - not by, or for, the Museum,but as trophies and curiosities. The Museum is firmly committed to natureconservation and we hope that by displaying these animals visitors willgain an awareness of the natural world.

smallestThe Harvest Mouse is one of the

smallest mammals in Britain. It weighsabout the same as a 20 pence coin.

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eggiestAlthough most

mammals give birthto live young, somemammals lay eggs.The Duck-billed Platypus(from Australia) and theEchidna (from NewGuinea, pronounced e-kid-nah) lay very small eggs.

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10

horsiestThe oldest horse in the world

can be found in the Museum. Hisname was Old Billy and he died in1822 near Manchester, aged 62.

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hairiestThe horn of a

Rhinoceros is made fromcompressed hair, not horn.

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hungriestThe Polar Bear

is the largest landcarnivore (meat-eater)in the world. It caneven kill an adultWalrus, which canweigh up to 1,500kg.

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strangestOne of the

strangest birds in theworld is the Hoatzinfrom South America -it is vegetarian and hasfour stomachs. It smellsawful and the youngbirds have claws intheir wings.

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beakiestThe Sword-billed

Hummingbird is theonly bird to have abeak longer than therest of its body.Hummingbirds are onlyfound in Canada, theUSA and in Central andSouth America.

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commonestThe commonest British bird is the Wren

with around 10 million breeding pairs inBritain and Ireland. One of the rarest birds isthe Bittern, which is a kind of heron that livesin reedbeds. There are probably less than 20breeding pairs of Bitterns in Britain.

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animal life 2 - birds11


widestThe bird with the biggest wingspan is

the Wandering Albatross at nearly 4 metres.There was a vulture, now extinct, which hadwings that were possibly twice as big, thesize of a small plane.

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ex-commonestThe Passenger Pigeon was

once the commonest bird inNorth America. It is now extinct.

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tallestThe biggest

living bird is theOstrich, whichweighs up to 130kgand stands almost3 metres tall.

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12


stickiestStick Insects are the

world’s longest insects. Someof them reach an overalllength of nearly 56cm.

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most poisonousThe Black Widow

Spider is famous forits deadly poison. It isconsidered to be the mostvenomous spider.

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hugestThe Atlas Moth is

the World's largestmoth, often mistakenfor a small bird when itis flying. The adults havea wingspan of 30cm.

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animal life 2 - insects13


eldestThe Cicada has the longest

lifespan in the insect world - up to17 years. They are only adults for a few weeks, spending the rest oftheir lives underground as juveniles.

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14

swarmiestLocusts can form the

largest swarms ever seen.These cover hundreds ofsquare miles and consist ofmany millions of locusts.

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strongestFor its size the

Hercules Beetle is thestrongest creature onearth and is capable ofcarrying up to 80 timesits own body weight.

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live animals and botany15

most endangeredFrogs have been around

since the time of the dinosaurs.Now, frogs and amphibians areamongst the world's mostendangered species.

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slowestThe Chameleon is one

of the slowest moving reptiles butwhen he shoots his tongue outto feed, if you blink you wouldmiss it.

40 stillest The Green Tree Python is our

stillest live animal. He is so securethat he hardly ever likes to move.

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deadliest The poison from one

Poison-dart Frog can kill 20,000mice or 10 adult humans.

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fattestTomato Frogs look like big fat

tomatoes, and are one of the fattestamphibians ever.

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wettestMost Bromeliad plants (in

the Poison-dart Frog tank) livehigh up on tree branches anddon’t have roots that go in theground. Their leaves hold waterlike a pool so make a good homefor jungle frogs.

44 fastestSome species of bamboo

plant can grow up to 30cm a day.

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mediterranean archaeology17

sweatiestAncient Greek

athletes wiped thesweat off their bodiesafter exercise using acurved bronzeinstrument called astrigil (pronounced strih-jill). It looks a bit like ashoe horn.

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smelliestFish sauce was

made from fish gutsleft to ferment inthe hot sun. Peopleput fish sauce ontheir meals rather likeour ketchup.

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pottiestPeople from Vounous

(pronounced voo-noos) in Cyprusshowed how important they were byputting lots of things in their tombs.The Museum has 56 pots from justone burial.

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18money

luckiest19th century Chinese coin

swords were made from coins tiedtogether with lucky red string, andwere meant to protect the ownerfrom evil spirits and disease.

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tiniestIn mythology, Charon ferried the souls

of the dead to the underworld. His paymentwas a small coin, Charon’s obol, placed inthe corpse’s mouth before burial.

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mostenormousIn the 17th and 18thcenturies, a shortageof silver for coins ledSweden to issueenormous equivalent‘plates’ of copper.

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map

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Floor M

Floor 1

Floor 2

amazing factsfrom The Manchester Museum

The Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road,Manchester, M13 9PL tel 0161 275 2634 email [email protected]/museum

T H E W O L F S O N F O U N D A T I O N

Cert no. SGS-COC-003591


Amazing Facts from The Manchester Museum

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