Bearded vultures have been revealed as the somewhat surprising curators of natural museums, after scientists investigating centuries-old, abandoned nests discovered that they were packed with a whole host of well-preserved historical remains. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Once found throughout the mountains and cliffs of southern Spain, bearded vultures are now extinct in these areas, having begun to disappear between 70 to 130 years ago. They did leave something behind, however – their nests.

Territorial raptors such as these birds tend to occupy the same nests over long periods of time, and the microclimate of the high-altitude areas where bearded vultures used to make them provides the kind of conditions that he

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