The Imaging Unit of the Applied Medical research center (CIMA) of the University of Navarra has participated in a pioneering project with Egyptian animal mummies. Using Micro CT from CIMA and CT from Clínica Universidad de Navarra, the researchers have studied 8 animal mummies 3,000 years old: two fish of the species Tilapia nilotica, two cats, a falcon, a feline head, a crocodile and a mormyrus fish, which are part of private collections and Spanish museums. "In view of the images it can be seen that the embalmers placed the animals in their most natural position, the fish for example are as if they were swimming through the water; the crocodile as if it were crawling, etc.", says the Egyptologist Mariluz Mangado.

This is a pioneering study worldwide, since it is the first known study of these characteristics that has been applied to non-human mummies. "We have been driven to collaborate by the curiosity to see what is inside a 'black box', without opening it, since it would cause irreparable damage, by undoing the bandage and causing the acceleration of the degradation of the sample", explained the engineer Carlos Ortiz de Solórzano, director of the Imaging Unit of the CIMA.