Weekly newspapers dating back more than 80 years have been holding together the Natural History Museum’s new main exhibit, it has been revealed.

The London museum has discovered that copies of the Kent Messenger dating from the 1930s are keeping the bones of a 25-metre long blue whale, thought to be the largest to have ever lived, intact.

The whale’s skeleton is being moved to the museum’s main Hintze Hall, where it will welcome visitors from next summer.

However, while staff were relocating the exhibit they discovered a number of copies of the Messenger, with the 1932 Christmas Eve edition, pictured below, packing out intervertebral discs.

It is thought workmen at the museum in the 1930s may have had connections to Kent, hence the use of the Messenger.

The museum has also speculated they intended to create a time capsule featuring the copies of the paper.

A museum spokesperson said: “Various issues of the Kent Messenger have been discovered in the ‘stuffing’ of our iconic blue whale skeleton here in South Kensington.

“Workmen onsite clearly had connections to the county and perhaps even intended on creating this time capsule for the modern museum to eventually uncover.

“As our conservators have carefully deinstalled the specimen, in preparation for its arrival in Hintze Hall in 2017, the Plaster-of-Paris-like material that was used to conjoin the fragile bones in the 1930s has unveiled its secrets.”

An artist’s impression of how the new exhibit will look

The whale beached in Ireland 125 years ago and first went on display in the Mammal Hall in 1938 after being bought by the museum.

The skeleton will be reconstructed from January until April and will be the centrepiece of a new display exploring the link between humans and animals.

It replaces a diplodocus skeleton, which has been on display in Hintze Hall for 35 years, as its main exhibit.

Messenger senior reporter Ed McConnell said: “As a bit of a natural history geek this was one of my favourite stories and a fascinating discovery for the whole team.

“It was great to see the journey the paper has come on over the past 80 years. It’s fair to say the old adage of today’s news tomorrow’s fish and chip paper can also work on a far greater scale.

“It would be brilliant if we could track down the relatives of the workmen who put the papers there. Hopefully we can work with the museum to create a new time capsule with recent editions.”