Il restauro conservativo del Coccodrillo del Nilo custodito presso Kosmos – Museo di Storia Naturale di Pavia

The restoration of the Nile crocodile in the collections of Kosmos - Natural History Museum of Pavia. The zoological collections of Kosmos host a large specimen of Crocodylus niloticus dating back to the end of the eighteenth century and originating from Egypt. This specimen was restored in 2019 by the company Platypus s.r.l. for the renovated exhibition halls. After a thorough cleaning, all the damaged portions of skin were consolidated with acetovinyl homopolymer, the gaps and cracks were reconstructed and the deep tears were filled with plaster with a high binding power. The reconstruction of the missing claws required casts of the existing claws on the paws for the creation of polyurethane resin replicas. The new claws, equipped with a metal pin, were then fixed to each distal phalanx. The conservative restoration carried out on the Nile crocodile improved its general look and stopped its degradation without altering the historical-scientific value of the specimen.