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Paris Museum Unveils First Plastinated Squid

By bleimanb on March 26, 2008.

France's National Museum of Natural History displayed its prize centerpiece today for an exhibit on biodiversity, a plastinated, 21+ foot-long, giant squid named Wheke. The squid was hauled in by a fisherman in New Zealand in 2001 and was plastinated in Italy by a company called VisDocta Research. The process, in which all of the squid's water, fat and other liquids are replaced with a hardening plastic filling, took two and a half years and cost approximately $100,000.

I am looking forward to plastinating Andrew's dog, Izzy, some day. Maybe for an anniversary gift?

i-350f26a9fe704b88262aa15c9a410e05-Wheke.jpg
Wheke would be so happy to know that he was immortalized in a space-age polymer plastic.

More info on the plastic squid here.

Also, do yourself a favor and DO NOT, for any reason, visit this post from Deep Sea News unveiling their latest addition to the giant squid song series. What about a song about brave, Wheke, guys? Let's hear it!

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Is it truly amazing how fake a $100K plastic squid looks, isn't it? But then, plastination kind of makes everything look fake - mammals, too.

Wheke is the martyr squid who is hanging plastinated above hordes of crossoint-eating French folks as we speak. He deserves a ballad.

Oh man, milkshake - I went and looked at that site. Creepy beyond belief, even the live cat knows this is just wrong!

OTOH, harmless, if weird.

Hey Bio, got any pics of fake looking plastinated mammals lying around?

Here.

Wheke?? *blinks unknowingly*

Apparently, it's the Maori word for octopus. Also, the name of the Maori octopus-god.

Apparently, the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands were mostly spared from the Tsunami of 2004 because they followed the animals to high ground.