The frightening abyss

This year the Darwin museum presents the fourth exhibition of the “MONSTERS” project dedicated to the inhabitants of our seas and oceans. Some aquatic creatures cause fear in most people. The goal of the project is to disprove scary myths, tell more about dangerous and harmless aquatic animals, explain how some animals can use their unusual physical features against humans and why we should follow certain rules when encountering an animal on its own territory.    

The exhibition displays the largest fish of our planet, the whale shark. It reaches 18 meters in length and weighs 13 tons. However the teeth of the whale shark are very small, it feeds on zooplankton and considered to be quite harmless for humans. Another interesting shark is a sleeper shark. Sleeper sharks are widely spread in the north of the Atlantic Ocean. The body length is over 6 meters. The lifespan of these sharks can be about 300 years, which makes them champions among the longest living vertebrates.

The exhibition project will also unveil many old mysteries about giant squids. There were many legends in Europe about a giant sea monster: the kraken. The legends became a reality in the middle of the XIXth century when the French corvette “Alecton” encountered a giant squid. Another giant squid (17,5 meters long, the tentacles were 10,5 meters) was found in New Zealand in 1888. These animals live at great depths, so most likely only dying squids rise to the surface. The scientific marine research showed the absence of any aggressiveness in the nature of these molluscs. The exhibition programme includes puzzles and other creative tasks for visitors.

Актуальные мероприятия