CHICAGO (AP) — Scientists at the Chicago Field Museum say there may have been a mix-up in 2009 when researchers identified the remains of two lions that ate about 35 railroad workers in colonial Kenya in the 1890s.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that scientists have been using a portable X-ray machine this week to determine the identities of the animals’ remains. The lions’ skulls have been displayed with labels informing visitors which skull belonged to which stuffed pelt.
Research conducted in 2009 examined the lions’ bone and hair samples. Researchers concluded at the time that skulls had been mislabeled, and the labels were changed. But the decision wasn’t universally accepted.
The museum acquired the lions in the 1920s from British colonel and engineer John H. Patterson, who fatally shot the lions in 1898.
