The dolphin was initially sent to the museum after being found at Kaka Point in January, having been washed ashore after apparently dying at sea.
Initially kept frozen, the dolphin was then thawed out and, in May, dissected by museum and University of Otago scientists.
The dolphin bones were returned to the museum yesterday after the last of the tissue had been stripped away.
Articulating the skeleton to conservation-grade standards - without drilling holes in the bones - so the dolphin could be displayed could cost several tens of thousands of dollars.
Museum exhibitions, development and planning director Clare Wilson said the ideal outcome would be to articulate and display the skeleton so most people could enjoy it, but this depended on funding.
Museum natural science research and interpretation co-ordinator Lucy Rowe said this was the first specimen of this dolphin species to be held at the museum, and was a great addition to its marine mammal collection.
There had been a spate of marine mammal strandings along the Otago coastline over the past 12 months and museum staff had processed and preserved specimens for the collection, liaised closely with Department of Conservation and Maori runanga representatives, and worked with Otago University scientists on dissections to clarify the cause of death, she said.
Other marine mammals donated to the museum recently were a leopard seal, New Zealand fur seal, New Zealand sea lion, dusky dolphin, pygmy sperm whale, Grey's beaked whale and Cuvier's beaked whale.
The Grey's whale had been hit by a boat propeller, but the other mammals appeared to have died of natural causes.
