[identity profile] eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com 2014-01-22 01:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Landfill was the fate for the dead pilot whale that the Zoology Dept was given when I worked there. The museum curator wanted to bury it in the Botany garden and dig up the bones 10 years later, but was told that a rotting whale carcass would violate lots of Publich Heath regulations.

We took it to the local tip, gutted it (to check for stomach contents and parasites), sawed off the lower jaw (to get an age from its teeth) and then shoved the rest into a big hole dug by a bulldozer.

I always imagine that whale skeleton will cause much confusion in archaeologists who excvate the tip a few centuries from now... :-)