I found this!

Earlier this week I had cause to be at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh for a meeting. Once the meeting was finished I still had a few hours to kill before picking up the boys from school, so I decided to have a wander round. It is an amazing place and I hadn't been there for ages and I was looking forward to spending a couple of child free hours in a museum!!! No one to shout, "Mum, I'm bored.....", "Mum, hurry up....". Bliss!!

The National Museum of Scotland is in a magnificent Victorian building which houses international collections of decorative arts, science and industry, archaeology and the natural world. Some of the exhibits are millions of years old, others less than a decade. However this vast building is only one half of the museum, the other half, The Royal Museum is a new modern building which adjoins the old one. Here you find "The story of Scotland", which is told through its land, people and culture. I decided that I would head off to the new part of the building since I have a profound interest in Scottish culture and history. (Actually I was looking for the craft section....No surprises there!!!)

However en route, from the old to the new part I found this!




This is Dolly.






Dolly was born on 5th July 1996, the creation of Ian Wilmut and his research team at Roslin Institute in Mid Lothian. She was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell. She was originally code-named 6LL3, but was called Dolly after Dolly Parton coz it was a mammary cell that was used for cloning. Because of the controversy surrounding cloning, her birth was not actually announced till 22nd Feb 1997. Sadly Dolly died from progressive lung disease on 14th Feb 2003.

However Dolly was not the first sheep to be cloned at Roslin. In 1995 Morag and Megan were cloned using embryonic cells, grown for several months in the laboratory. Sadly Morag died from an infection in 2000, but Megan celebrated her 10th "birthday" last year! Morag was originally exhibited in the National Museum of Scotland along with a fleece from Dolly, and latterly Dolly herself became an exhibit!

Ruth, does this count as part of the sheep challenge? Well Dolly wasn't really a "normal" sheep, was she?