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Museum zoo: where size really does matter |
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Museum Zoo highlights critical issues for the survival of all species.
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The Animal Parade juxtaposes unlikely partners.
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Where in the world could you possibly find a Diamondback Rattlesnake rubbing non-existent shoulders with a Coastal Taipan, while a small desert marsupial and a European Mole look on; or where a Great White Shark attempts to snack on a dolphin, while an eagle and a pterosaur soar overhead?
The answer is the Queensland Museum South Bank, Brisbane where extraordinary experiences greet the visitor with the juxtaposition of unlikely partners. The museum's new exhibition - Museum Zoo: animals, size and me - is a unique celebration of diversity and size in the animal world.
The stars are more than 700 animal specimens, big and small, past and present, drawn from the museum's world class Biodiversity collections. Most specimens are making their public display debut.
The exhibition explores how many of these creatures have adapted to survive in a world influenced by man, climate change and destruction of their native habitat. Although a joyous celebration of life, it also highlights critical environmental issues destined to affect the lives of generations to come.
The centre-piece is the 'Animal Parade'. Here visitors come face to face with animals of all shapes and sizes, from tigers and polar bears at one end to barely visible insects at the other.
The very act of walking alongside the Parade makes the visitor a participant in this extraordinary spectacle of life. There is much to dazzle the eye, such as flamboyantly attired parrots and pheasants, but there are also challenges for the mind and questions to ponder.
The 'small end' of the Parade features nature's dwarves and is largely populated by insects and other invertebrates. One of the surprises awaiting the visitor to this part of the exhibition is the tiny birds and mammals here; so tiny, in fact, that they are sometimes dwarfed by neighbouring moths and beetles!
Next to the Parade is the 'Great Wall' over 45 metres long and nearly six metres high. Here, in outline at least, are some of the largest animals that have ever lived. One of the most awesome creatures on the Great Wall has to be the extinct 'Megatooth' or Giant White Shark, a fearsome predator just smaller than a Sperm Whale.
Not convinced that such a monster existed? The display cases near the entrance of Zoo illustrate the diversity of size and shape of related animals, and show the jaws of living sharks and fossil shark teeth - including actual examples of the hand-sized teeth of 'Megatooth'.
The Great Wall also features human record holders such as the tallest and shortest man/woman, as well as the recently discovered tiny human; Homo floresiensis: the 'Hobbit'. The Great Wall gives visitors the opportunity to compare themselves in size not only to the giants of the animal world, but also to the record holders amongst our own species.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, you can discover why some animals are too big to fly, why animals with internal skeletons grow larger than ones with external skeletons and the benefits of working together. There are strategically placed questions (does size really matter?), displays, games and interactive pods designed to engage the visitor by stimulating thought and discussion on questions relating to:
- size
- survival and
- our place in the natural world.
This exhibition promises to entertain, inform and inspire, but on another level it will also alarm. We live in a rapidly changing global environment - look along the Parade from the small end and you will see the 'Warning Wall'. Many of the biggest creatures are threatened species that face an uncertain future, but it is a shared future. |
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If humans could fly, the length of one of their wings would equal the entire wingspan of a Wandering Albatross! |
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The largest birds that have ever lived are all flightless (e.g. moas, emus, cassowaries) |
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Penguins can fly - but only in the water! |
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Some animals with internal skeletons have external armour on the skin as well |
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Humans have copied such armour to protect themselves (or parts of their bodies) in war and in the workplace |
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Wing length increases with size and weight - the largest flying birds need wings that can capture updrafts from land or water. |
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