Museum displays unusual animal, past and present
The 6-foot-tall bronze sculpture appears to be something invented for a Hollywood movie, but this bird with clawed feet and a huge beak made for tearing flesh actually lived in Wyoming 55 million years ago. The diatryma, as this terrifying bird is called, greets visitors when they enter this peculiar exhibition called “Bizarre Beasts,’ showing at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh through June 3. The exhibition details strange animals of the land, sea and air.
“Keep in mind,’ said Ellen James, public relations manager for the museum of natural history, “that all these animals lived at one time.’
That includes not only prehistoric creatures, such as the diatryma, which also can be found in a more lifelike replica complete with feathers further into the exhibit, but also modern-day equivalents, such as the cassowary, a 3-foot-tall bird found in Australia and Indonesia that will kick violently to defend itself with its long, sharp-toe claws.
The juxtaposition of extinct and modern-day animals is the wonder of “Bizarre Beasts,’ created by Gary Staab, a world-famous illustrator and sculptor whose creations have been seen in museums, movies and on television. In addition to “Bizarre Beasts,’ Staab also is producing life-sized flesh reconstructions of dinosaurs and other animals for “Dinosaurs in Their World,’ the 22,600-square-foot exhibit opening at the Carnegie in November.
According to material from the Carnegie, “Staab’s models for ‘Bizarre Beasts’ offer a unique view into prehistoric life and the amazing creatures that lived during that time. This exhibit also explores the forces that have caused life to change over time and adapt to different environments. Visitors will learn about how the earliest forms of life struggled to survive challenging conditions, how the first vertebrates transitioned from water to land, and how mammals evolved from the most humble of beginnings to diversifying into nearly every area on the planet.’
In a telephone interview, Staab, whose Staab Studios is located in Colorado, said, “My effort is to expose people to things they might not have seen before and get them to look at nature and develop an appreciation for the amazing things around them every day.’
He noted there are many strange animals in existence today, including the elephant and giraffe, but “because we’ve been around them all our lives, they no longer seem bizarre.’
Staab’s exhibition includes life-size replicas, touchable fossils, a four-minute film on life on Earth today as well as examples of unique animals found today. It is divided into several segments that include:
“Incredible Invertebrates” features a wall of 15,000 trilobites of different species. The exhibition calls them “the ultimate survivors. They spanned hundreds of millions of years.’ There is a replica of a eurypterid, a predatory invertebrate that swam in ancient seas and was 6 feet long – 8 feet if you count the reach of its claws. Also look for a rock that has invertebrate animal tracks.
Youths will love “No Bones About It,’ which asks them to guess which animal is an invertebrate: a snake, fish or horseshoe crab. They can also see a display of an intestine replica that reinforces the fact these animals don’t have an internal skeleton.
“Little boys love this exhibit because you get to touch guts,’ said James. “You get to see what the animal looks like inside.’
“Fantastic Fish’ includes an exhibit called “Strange Sharks’ that features such fantastic creatures as a helicoprion, also referred to as a “whorltooth wonder,” which has teeth that look like a buzz saw. This animal was found 260 million years ago in North America. The exhibition notes, “Although the design is funny and illogical, it served the shark well.’ Next to that is a scrub-brush shark, which looks like it has a scrub brush on its fin and head. This animal was found 325 million years ago in Montana. The present-day comparison is a hammerhead shark, which has a projection on each side of its head that resembles a hammer. Its eyes and nostrils are on the tips of the projections.
An exhibit on “Armored Fish’ compares prehistoric placoderms, such as the immense dunkleosteus, which lived 380 million years ago in Morocco, with modern fish such as the armored catfish that live in South America today.
“Amazing Amphibians’ features animals such as the platyhistrix sail fin salamander, which lived 275 million years ago in New Mexico. The exhibition notes, “Bright colors or bold patterns may have helped it attract a member of the opposite sex or scare off competitors.’
“Bizarre Beasts’ also notes that “during the Permian Period, amphibians were some of the largest predators.’
“Radical Reptiles’ shows how scientists use bones to determine how animals are related to each other in an exhibit called “All in the Family.’ Learn about animals such as the bristle-tail dinosaur that lived 130 million years ago in China and the newly discovered ceratopsian, which lived 70 million years ago in Utah.
Meanwhile, the “Leaping Lizards’ exhibit features another recent find called an African pterosaur, which lived 110 million years ago and was discovered in the Sahara Desert. The exhibit notes, “Its teeth are long and sharp to help it hold onto the slippery fish that probably made up a large part of its diet. The top of its nose is narrow, helping it to reduce drag as it pulled prey from the water.’
Anyone who thinks these lizards are a thing of the past should look at the flying dragon from Indonesia, which is about 12 inches long with a tail. The exhibition includes a film showing this strange animal in flight.
“Bizarre Birds’ features animals such as the diatryma and cassowary in an exhibit called “Terror Birds.’ A display called “Bizarre Beaks’ shows the beaks of various birds and how they function. For example, the great blue heron uses its dagger-like bill to spear larger fish while the white cockatoo’s bill is the “ultimate nutcracker.’
“Marvelous Mammals’ teaches visitors about such animals as the dwarf mammoth, which lived in Sicily, Italy, 500,000 years ago. The exhibition notes, “In an isolated area with limited food, like an island, animals that used fewer resources are more likely to survive. Over many generations, this can drive a reduction in body size.’
An exhibit called “Novel Noses’ includes the extinct shovel-tooth elephant found in China and the modern tapin, a pig-like animal found in Central and South America. Meanwhile, “Bumps, Knobs and Tusks’ looks at animals such as the dinocephalians, which lived 225 million years ago in Russia and probably ate plants, comparing it to the modern-day moose.
“Modern Marvels’ includes a look at some interesting modern-day animals through a four-minute film and some of the Carnegie’s own taxidermy displays as the Howler monkey, anteater, platypus and porcupine.
Visitors can have fun with the interactive “Creature Feature/Natural Selection Game,’ which allows visitors to make their own creature. The computer, however, will make certain your creature can survive in the environment you choose: forest, ocean or underground.
“Raising the Dead’ is a three-minute film that shows how artists and scientists work together to create extinct animals from fossils.
Intriguing yet educational, James noted of “Bizarre Beasts,’ “You can come to the exhibit and see beasts you’ve never seen before.’
They may be creatures from the past or just around the globe today.
More information on “Bizarre Beasts’ can be found on Staab’s Web site www.staab.com. For more information on the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, call 412-622-3131 or visit the Web site at www.carnegiemnh.org.