Taxidermists at New York City's American Museum of Natural History recently received the frozen body of the deceased animal, and they are now doing the painstaking work—measuring, molding, and casting—to ready him for his museum debut this winter. The final George will include his actual skin and shell fit over a custom-made foam structure that mimics his anatomy.

"Doing taxidermy on a tortoise is much like working on an elephant," said George Dante, the lead taxidermist on the project. "There's no fur, so we have to work to preserve the skin, maintaining its natural color and texture as much as possible, sculpting the wrinkles so they are anatomically accurate. There's very little room for error."

In the final product, which