Returning the Giant Jamaican Galliwasp
Returning the Giant Jamaican Galliwasp
Black History Month
Date: Thursday 10 October 2024
Time: 18:00 - 19:30
Venue: Hunterian Museum
Category: Hunterian
Speaker: Various
Website: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/returning-the-giant-jamaican-galliwasp-tickets-964881986997
This April a historic handover took place in the repatriation of a 170-year-old Jamaican Galliwasp specimen from The Hunterian to its rightful home, the Natural History Museum of Jamaica. Hear from Hunterian curators and colleagues from The University of the West Indies (who will join us on screen) about the first repatriation of a natural history specimen in the Caribbean.
The Giant Jamaican Galliwasp (Celestus occiduus) is an endemic species, meaning it has only ever been found in Jamaica. They were last confirmed alive in the 1800s but the species is now considered to be extinct.
When the specimen arrived in Jamaica earlier this year, an official handover ceremony was held and it was deposited in the Natural History Museum of Jamaica allowing it to be accessible to all Jamaicans.
This is the first repatriation of a natural history specimen in the Caribbean and symbolises an important milestone for scientific research, cultural heritage preservation in the region, and repatriation as part of the reparatory justice for the Caribbean.