Since the opening of the universities current biology building in 1982, several mounted skeletons of large mammals have been on display in the central spaces. In preparation of the move to the new building this year, a new home for three of the six large mammal skeletons had to be found. Luckily, the Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy offered a new display area, just in front of their main lecture hall.
In a cooperative effort, three teams from the Department of Evolutionary Biology, the Department of Palaeontology and the Natural History Museum Vienna de-mounted the historic skeletons – the giraffe for example being on display since almost 250 years – and re-installed them at their new location. This will allow future students, as it has for generations of biology students before, to study such remarkable skeletal systems from original specimens.