Traveling Exhibitions

[Visitors sit in a theater, watching a recreation of the moment the K-Pg asteroid struck Earth.]

ROGER BENSON (Macaulay Curator of Dinosaur Paleobiology, Division of Paleontology): So, everyone knows 66 million years ago a giant asteroid struck the Earth and made dinosaurs become extinct.

[AMBIENT CINEMATIC MUSIC]

[Diorama of a charred Triceratops skull, a dead tree, and a hazy red sky after the asteroid impact.]

BENSON: Although it was a tremendous destructive force, this mass extinction was actually a creative force that's foundational for the world we live in today.

[The recovery part of the exhibition featuring a massive mammal called a Paraceratherium and a Ambulocetus, a legged ancestor to modern-day whales.]

[Models of living animals and screens highlighting landscapes with text that says, “How can we protect our beautiful world?”.]

[Graphic panel that reads “Why did some species survive?”]

BENSON: And we really want to communicate what happens when a giant space rock strikes the Earth.

[Roger Benson stands in front of a large diorama with a life-size Triceratops.]

BENSON: This is something no one's ever seen before, but we have a great deal of scientific understanding from physics and geological evidence. This is a pretty exciting topic [chuckles] and honestly I can't think of anything better to do an exhibit about.

[MUSIC RISES]

[Exhibit entrance reads “Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs”.]

[A model of Triceratops gnaws on a small tree as part of the Hell Creek formation diorama]

BENSON: This exhibit has dinosaurs -

[A real sample of the K-Pg boundary layer behind glass.]

BENSON: - it has space rocks -

[An educational panel on geological evidence of the asteroid impact]

BENSON: - it has science -

[A super close-up look at the Paraceratherium model.]

BENSON: - it has lots of things that are really exciting to people and it's truly cross-disciplinary in scope.

[Small lights on a globe indicate where material from the asteroid has been discovered on Earth.]

[Sean Decatur stands behind a huge life-size model of Paraceratherium.]

SEAN DECATUR (Museum President): The story really takes us uh over the course of a narrative arc-

[A section labeled “Global Diversity” introduces the Hell Creek diorama, which recreates Hell Creek as it was during the Cretaceous Period.]

DECATUR: - from what the world was like before the impact-

[Wall graphic asks, “What else was here?” and highlights different Cretaceous species. Two fossils, a sample of Triceratops skin and a toenail.]

[A red section called “Evidence” behind a kiosk with a mini game titled “Which Cretaceous creatures survived?”]

[The “Under Water” section on surviving marine species post-impact]

DECATUR: - then takes you through what happens as life comes back.

[MUSIC mellows out]

[Roger Benson stands in front of a large diorama with a life-size Triceratops.]

BENSON: The exhibit starts with dioramas of the Cretaceous world, and that includes the world on land with this lifelike model of the dinosaur Triceratops.

[Lauri Halderman stands in front of the Hell Creek diorama.]

LAURI HALDERMAN (Sr. Vice President for Exhibition Emeritus): Some of the first things you see are the amazing models made by our artist preparator team. You'll see the mosasaur and plesiosaur-

[A panel reading “Marine Giants” next to a life-size model hanging from the ceiling of a mosasaur about to bite down on the neck of a plesiosaur.]

HALDERMAN: -these giant marine animals that help you understand like: “Whoa, the oceans were really different!”.

[A model of a toothed bird in flight beside a model of a small mammal called Didelphodon baring its teeth to a model Triceratops.]

BENSON: Our job isn't just to communicate one exciting dinosaur. It's to communicate the world that these animals lived in and that it was rich in other species.

[Rebecca Meah stands in front of a Triceratops model.]

REBECCA MEAH (Sr. Principal Preparator, Exhibition): One of the things that's really awesome about this diorama is that it's a teaching model. So, we're trying to not just show the animal and its anatomy -

[Closeup look at the model Triceratops’ face chewing on a sapling.]

MEAH: - but how it might have interacted in the environment.

[A woman and child read information panels about the Hell Creek diorama.]

MEAH: I really love when something is super realistic, and you can kind of get lost in specific moments throughout the space.

[Models of a bird ancestor eating a small mouse and a tortoise in the background.]

MEAH: I feel like that carries a story really well and it allows the viewer to like, come away from it and think about it and then come back to it and see something else every time they return.

[Brett Peterson stands between a blue wall graphic that reads “Could we protect ourselves?” and a large-screen kiosk with a game called “Planetary Defense”. 

BRETT PETERSON (Director of Media and Interactives, Exhibition): A main feature of this exhibit is the Impact theater where we walk through what led up to the impact, the impact itself, and then the immediate after-effects.

[A theater full of families watch a film that shows a dinosaur looking up to the asteroid falling across the night sky.]

PETERSON: We designed this as kind of a storybook style, so it's less intense for children, but really telling that powerful story of destruction and rebirth.

[A light turns on to reveal a model of a burrow with mice-like mammals nesting with leaves.]

HALDERMAN: How did the world rebuild from 75%-

[A model of a worn and dry Triceratops skull lies at the base of a smoldering tree. A barren wasteland can be seen behind it.]

HALDERMAN: -of all species going extinct to the world we have today?

[Two women read information panels in the “Under Water” section of the exhibition.]

HALDERMAN: That's what I think is really interesting is to understand how-

[Lauri Halderman stands in front of the Hell Creek diorama.]

HALDERMAN: - plants and animals diversified together, radiated together, so that we really start to understand ecosystems-

[A wall panel full of images of lush green plants describes the “Recipe for a Rainforest”.]

HALDERMAN: -and how they give rise to new lineages and species.

[Roger Benson stands in front of the “Recipe for a Rainforest” infographic.]

BENSON: One of the most important consequences of the extinction is it cleared the way for entirely new ecosystems. So not just individual species and groups but fundamentally new things like tropical rainforests which are phenomenally important centers of biodiversity today. And some of the earliest inhabitants of those ecosystems include this gigantic snake Titanoboa.

[Model of the head of a hissing Titanoboa.]

BENSON: This snake was so big that it couldn't even fit through a regular doorway!

[Sean Decatur gestures to a huge life-size model of Paraceratherium.]

DECATUR: So, after the mass extinction and during the rise of mammals, the world saw some of the largest land mammals that have ever lived on the planet, including this one behind me.

[A touchable 3D-printed scale model comparing Paraceratherium to a human. Then pans to the face of the mammal model.]

DECATUR: So, these are animals that are now extinct, but they are very much a part of this exhibit and the larger story.

[Brett Peterson stands in front of the “Planetary Defense” station.]

PETERSON: We designed a really fun interactive called Planetary Defense where children and adults can try their hand at protecting the Earth from asteroids.

[A man playing “Planetary Defense”.]

PETERSON: This is at the end of the exhibit where we are addressing concerns that people might have about, could this happen again? Will an asteroid ever strike the earth again-

[Brett Peterson stands in front of the “Planetary Defense” station.]

PETERSON: -and wipe out all life? So, we really wanted to address that and talk about the ways that scientists and others are preparing for this possible future event.

[Sean Decatur stands in front of the Paraceratherium model.]

DECATUR: One of the things I think that's unique about AMNH is the-

[A researcher closes a drawer of a lab cabinet. Shelves with skulls and various other bones line the wall behind them.]

DECATUR: -range of scientific expertise that we can bring to projects like this-

[Sean Decatur in front of the Paraceratherium model.]

DECATUR: -and our long history in paleontology and earth science research, in studies of oceans and ocean life. To assemble a curatorial team and then bring that curatorial team to work with-

[Two women converse as they look at the Hell Creek diorama.]

DECATUR: -an exhibit team that has a long history of building immersive models, working with scientists to create things that recreate-

[Sean Decatur in front of the Paraceratherium model.]

DECATUR: -with as much scientific accuracy as possible - whole new worlds. 

[Roger Benson stands beside models of a penguin, peacock, Tasmanian tiger, and a frog while screens play short videos on conservation.]

BENSON: Our exhibit focuses on extinctions that occurred deep in the past. But of course-

[A label reads “Critically Endangered. Bog turtle. Glyptemys muhlenbergii.” and points to a turtle model.]

BENSON: -biodiversity on our planet right now is under threat-

[Model of a Tasmanian tiger.]

BENSON: -largely due to human activities.

[Model of a blue duiker.]

BENSON: This part of the exhibit, at its end-

[Model of an American bullfrog, classified as “Least Concern.”]

BENSON: -focuses on the rich biodiversity of species that are alive on our planet today.

[Roger Benson in front of the modern biodiversity section.]

BENSON: We focus on conservation success stories and the message that everyone has it within their power to do something about this right now.

[Lauri Halderman stands in front of the Hell Creek diorama.]

HALDERMAN: We also came to a final note in the exhibition where we just wanted to remind people of the beautiful life that we all look around and see.

[CINEMATIC MUSIC BUILDS UP]

HALDERMAN: So, we worked with an artist, Claire Borch-

[A colorful pop-up collage of many different plant and animal species.]

HALDERMAN: to develop a kind of 2D, 3D collage of today's biodiversity with a few extinct species thrown in. But it really reminds us of the beautiful life that we all love today.

[CINEMATIC MUSIC MELLOWS]

[Roger Benson stands in front of a large diorama with a life-size Triceratops.]

BENSON: So, we really want to communicate to a wide audience the different aspects of science by which we understand events in deep time. And honestly the most remarkable thing to me is firstly that these things happened at all. And secondly, that we know anything about them, let alone that we know many things, sometimes in great scientific detail about the world before, during, and after this mass extinction event.

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll.

Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org).]

[FAST PERCUSSION MUSIC]

[A group of four visitors walk by a decal of a T. rex tail on the wall.]

[Visitors enter the exhibition. Behind them is a decal of a roaring T. rex. Text says “T. rex: The Ultimate Predator”.]

[A wall panel titled “T. rex Traits” has a diagram of a T. rex skull.]

[A woman and two children read and interact with an educational panel at the base of a dinosaur model.]

[A young girl spins a zoetrope, an optical toy, with an image of a T. rex walking.]

[An adult T. rex cast skull and thigh bone are highlighted in the “Getting BIG” section.]

[A man and a young girl look up to a juvenile dinosaur model.]

[Closeup of a T. rex cast skull.]

[Model of an open plaster jacket with dinosaur bones inside.]

[Closeup of a huge, roaring adult T. rex model.]

[Wide shot of the adult T. rex model surrounded by cases of artifacts.]

[Closeup of T.rex cast teeth and jaws.]

[A man, woman, and two children play at an interactive station about bones.]

[A girl completes a puzzle called “Find the Right Tail”.]

[A child looks a model of a T. rex hatchling. A shadow of an adult T. rex moves behind it.]

[A sign reads “Meet the Family”. Beside it is a model of a relative of T. rex.]

[Model of a feathered dinosaur. Behind it are others from the T. rex family tree.]

[A woman plays an interactive where you can the color of animated T. rex.]

[Wide shot of visitors wandering through the exhibition.]

[Two children play with a large interactive projection of a T. rex.]

[A man and a woman test an interactive activity called “Make your own T. rex sound!”]

[A child spins the wheels of a survival challenge decision game.]

[A sign reads “Magnet Match”. And a young girl grabs a T. rex and places it under the timeline at “66 million years ago”.]

[Pan over a complete life-size T.rex cast skeleton.]

[A person presses a button on a panel with information about dinosaur bones. The corresponding bone lights up blue on the T.rex cast skeleton.]

[A family watches shadow puppet film being projected at the base of a dinosaur model.]

[A couple looks on as a pair of children point at something and smile.]

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll. Logo of the American Museum of Natural History.]

[HAPPY PLAYFUL MUSIC]

[A group of visitors walk past the exhibit entrance. Text says “The Secret World of Elephants”.]

ROSS MACPHEE (Curator Emeritus, Department of Mammalogy): In The Secret World of Elephants, we've got the perfect animal for getting people involved with a whole range of stories-

[A group of adults sit together to watch a film about elephants.]

MACPHEE: about not only natural behavior-

[Elephants bathing in a pond.]

MACPHEE: — anatomy, relationships, all the usual — but also how-

[A small group of elephants walk alongside park rangers.]

MACPHEE: -these particular species interact with humans for good or ill over many thousands of years-

[Two elephants playing in the bushes.]

[Ross Macphee stands in front of a Savannah elephant model.]

MACPHEE: This is a full-sized Savannah elephant from Africa and we're using it as a projection base in order to show you things about how the elephant is put together internally.

[Pan over animated projection playing on the side of a Savannah elephant model.]

MACPHEE: There's a projection of the muscles of the bones, the nerves. And on that basis, you can understand how it does what it does.

LAURI HALDERMAN (Sr. Vice President for Exhibition): I think people come to the exhibition because they're drawn to elephants-

[Lauri Halderman stands in a hallway at the Museum. A school group is passing by in the background.]

HALDERMAN: -they know what they are and elephants are very charismatic.

[A senior woman and a young boy read the label about elephant diet.]

HALDERMAN: But there's so much more to learn about elephants.

[A walking pair of visitors approach a large elephant model. A girl points to it in excitement.]

HALDERMAN: They’ll learn about how amazing their bodies are-

[MUSIC mellows out]

[Two women read off information panels about elephant migration and the ivory trade.]

[Wide shot of various visitors walking around the exhibition.]

HALDERMAN: -the important things they're doing in their ecosystems.

[A visitor flips open a model of elephant dung. Text reads “How does elephant poop help animals?”.]

HALDERMAN: At the American Museum of Natural History, I feel like the exhibitions that touch on-

[A large model of a “grass ball” on a scale to show how much elepahnts eat. Text reads “Big Eaters”.]

HALDERMAN: the natural science-

[A woman looks at a display case with elephant-themed figurines.]

HALDERMAN: -and the cultural stories together-

[Closeup on a figurine of a man riding an elephant.]

HALDERMAN: -are really a sweet spot for us.

[Closeup on a figurine of an elephant riding a scooter as it balances a ball on its trunk.]

HALDERMAN: I think when you come as a visitor, there's something for everyone.

[A child sticks an elephant magnet to a magnet wall.]

[Sean Decatur stands in front of a Savannah elephant model.]

SEAN DECATUR (President, American Museum of Natural History): The exhibition begins with what for biology is the central idea, which is evolution and evolutionary relationships.

[A man and young boy read from an info panel titled “A Long Story”.]

DECATUR: And so, where do elephants come from?

[Two flip panels, one of an African elephant, the other of a woolly mammoth. A hand flips up the woolly mammoth panel.]

DECATUR: How have elephants changed over time?

[A young woman looks at a panel with highlighting a skull model and a picture of a manatee. Text above reads “Unlikely relatives”.]

DECATUR: What are the relationships between other different types of species and elephants?

[A man points out a woolly mammoth model to a child.]

HALDERMAN: I think people have no idea how many-

[A man and woman read panels in a section of the exhibition titled “Evolution”.]

HALDERMAN: -extinct elephant relatives there are. They know mastodons-

[A man looks at a case with elephant bones inside. Text on the panel behind says “Mastodon vs. Mammoth".]

HALDERMAN: and mammoths, but boy-

[A group of visitors gather around a glass display with bones.]

HALDERMAN: is there a huge amount of diversity.

[Ross Macphee stands in front of a Savannah elephant model.]

MACPHEE: Can you imagine in your mind's eye a fully adult elephant that only weighs say, 400 or 500 pounds?

[A model of a dwarf elephant and its calf. A cast skull is behind it.]

MACPHEE: Can you imagine that same very small elephant having babies that would be the size of a very large cat? That's what we're looking at here-

[A family of four looks in amazement at a cast skull of a dwarf elephant.]

MACPHEE: -a dwarf elephant from the island of Sicily that used to live there-

[Closeup on the head of a model of a dwarf elephant.]

MACPHEE: -several hundred thousand years ago.

[An animation of bones and inner organs is projected onto the side of an African savannah elephant model.]

DECATUR: As a newcomer to AMNH, something that has been-

[A man and a woman watch as a child plays with an interactive infographic projected on a wall about elephant and human relationships.]

DECATUR: -very exciting for me to see is how-

[A model of a woolly mammoth shedding its winter coat.]

DECATUR: -collaborations between-

[A touchable model of an elephant tusk.]

DECATUR: -artists and engineers and designers and scientists-

[An animation of an elephant’s gestation period is projected onto the side of an African savannah elephant model.]

DECATUR: -and conservation experts-

[A woman walks past a wall panel titled “Protecting Elephants”.]

DECATUR: -can result in a comprehensive-

[A child turns a wheel that’s part of a light-up interactive. A label nearby reads “How the ears cool the body”.]

DECATUR: -dynamic exhibit.

[Brett Peterson stands in front of a screen with a mini-game.]

BRETT PETERSON (Director of Media and Interactives): I think a lot of people know that elephants are smart but we really wanted to highlight these complex social behaviors between elephants-

[A woman and a group of young girls stand playing at two game stations.]

PETERSON: -and how they interact with each other.

[A group plays a pop quiz. They all smile after guessing the answer.]

MACPHEE: Communication is everything. They spend a lot of time interacting with each other by sound, by touch, by gesture with their trunks.

[A trio of kids stand at another game station.]

PETERSON: This piece in particular, “Can You Speak Elephant?”, is an opportunity to explore that.

[A man and a young boy start a mini-game. A collage of elephant photos are on a screen that says “Can You Speak Elephant?”.]

PETERSON: You can see different elephant behaviors and learn about them and try to guess what they're doing in their own environments.

[A few visitors sit while watching a film.]

HALDERMAN: The exhibition has a film called Shaba that's about an organization in Kenya in which local communities-

[Caretakers feed a bottle to a baby elephant.]

HALDERMAN: -adopt orphaned elephants-

[A caretaker examines the bottom of a baby elephant’s foot.]

HALDERMAN: -raise them, and rewild them. It's not only amazing work-

[Baby elephants run playfully across a field.]

HALDERMAN: -but it's so heartwarming and it's good for both the elephants and-

[A woman presses her forehead against that of a baby elephant after feeding it.]

[PLAYFUL MUSIC BUILDS UP]

HALDERMAN: -the local Samburu women who do the work.

[A group of teens gather to look over a fence.]

[A caretaker calls to a baby elephant that comes running to her and latches onto the feeding bottle being held out.]

DECATUR: This exhibit addresses ways in which elephants are being threatened in their natural habitats and how-

[Sean Decatur stands in front of a Savannah elephant model.]

DECATUR: -human interactions with elephants are negatively impinging on the survival of elephants. And so, we hope visitors take away new insights into the science but also take away a deeper understanding to the importance of conservation, to the survival of elephants.

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll.

The Secret World of Elephants is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org).]

[AMBIENT MUSIC]

[Visitors in shadow walk past the exhibition title wall. Text reads “Sharks”.]

[A shark swims forward and transitions into a video projected onto a wall with visitors watching.]

[A woman and young boy walk toward a model of a Megalodon with its mouth wide open. A sign nearby reads “Ancient”.]

[A woman reads an infographic titled “How old are sharks?”.]

[A man looks on as a woman and a child jump and play a game pretending to be sharks swimming.]

[A woman looks at a model of a Great white shark.]

[Closeup of a whale shark model next to a sign that says “Biggest and smallest”.]

[Two visitors hover over buttons on panel asking “What’s the real risk?”. They watch as the meter above fills to show how dangerous other species are to humans compared to sharks.]

[A family interacts with digital panels about shark life and characteristics.]

[Closeup of rabbitfish shark model.]

[Two kids play the simulation game where they can hunt like a hammerhead shark.]

[Pan over an array of shark models, including a great white, hammerhead, and a saw shark.]

[A woman takes a video of a child and a man jumping and playing with a mini game.]

[A child looks into the mouth of a Megalodon model in wonder.]

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll. Text: The Museum gratefully acknowledges Discovery Inc. for its generous support of Sharks. A selection of footage in Sharks has been provided by Discovery's Shark Week.]

[UPBEAT PLAYFUL MUSIC]

[Two visitors walk past the exhibition entrance of “Life at the Limits, Stories of Amazing Species.”]

[A boy and a girl examine touchable models of defensive animal armor/shells.]

[A woman and two boys chat while looking at a large model of undersea tubeworms.]

[A boy points out a picture of a woodpecker. The label above says “Terrific Tongues”.]

[Pan over a hanging dragonfly model down to a touchable, larger-than-life Hercules beetle model that kids are playing on.]

[A woman points to a shark model for a child.]

[A young girl and a man sniff at a scent station. The girl scrunches her face in disgust at the smell of a corpse flower.]

[A girl walks into a dark section titled “Living in Caves”.]

[Multiple kids try to climb on top of a giant Hercules beetle model.]

[A young boy looks up at a hanging elephant seal model.]

[Visitors are seated watching a film titled “Life at the Limits”.]

[Two girls play an interactive game. Instructions say “Toss a clam. Grab a scallop.”]

[Two women look at a display about sea animals.]

[A woman and two children press buttons to learn about animal reproduction rates.]

[A group looks up at a hanging model of a corpse flower, Rafflesia arnoldii.]

[A family walks through the exhibition, looking around.]

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll. Nature’s Superheroes: Life at the Limits is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org).]

[EMOTIONAL VIOLIN RIFF]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History logo]

[SOFT WONDERING MUSIC STARTS]

[A family of four walks into the exhibition. They step onto a floor projection of ocean waves on a beach. A title wall says “Unseen Oceans. Hypnotic, soothing, forever in motion”.]

[A dim room with different display cases and stations, softly illuminated by blue and white lighting and a ceiling of blue and green plankton. There are graphics on the wall of various sea creatures.]

[Closeup of multiple enlarged models in display cases: marine diatom, left-eye flounder larvae, and zooplankton.]

[A hanging sign says, “Meet the scientist”. Below, two children walk through the exhibition while looking up into the ceiling display of glowing plankton.]

[A woman looks at a larger-than-life model of a zooplankter.]

[A pan over the wall art with various sea animals, then looking into a room with a green model sculpture of biofluorescent species. A man walks around the funnel-shaped model, or “fishnado”.]

[In a section called “Live animals!”, two visitors look into aquarium tanks lit with purple lighting.]

[A curved wall display plays a video of a blue whale and other sea animals swimming. Two kids sit to watch, with two adults standing behind them smiling.]

[A dark purple room with a model of the Hudson Canyon, lit by a topographic map. A visitor reads an infographic and mouths “Wow!”.]

[A group of visitors play in a sand pit, building small sand structures.]

[Two kids sit inside a model Triton submersible. They play with various buttons, as the woman accompanying them snaps a photo.]

[A man and a girl sit in a theater watching a film about marine life and research. In the video, an orca swims by a school of fish and other animals swim by as a researcher operates a submersible.]

[A girl and a woman jump around, playing with an interactive floor projection of fish-like creatures.]

[A boy and a man look into a tank with a live fish. Then, they play a simulation game together where they explore the ocean floor in a submersible.]

[A boy looks up in wonder at a wall projection of fish swimming by.]

[EMOTIONAL MUSIC SWELLS]

[Credits roll.

Featuring scenes from BBC Earth and Oceans: Our Blue Planet.]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History]

[MYSTICAL MUSIC]

[Color-changing exhibition title wall reads “Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence”. Two visitors walk under a Mangrove tree model, through a dark scene on a wooden boardwalk. A group watches a video about underwater research tools. A mounted model of three Pacific hatchetfish. Closeup of a glowing model of a Sequoia millipede.]

NARRATOR: Creatures of Light: Nature's Bioluminescence takes visitors on a journey around the world and into the deepest oceans in order to marvel at some of the planet's most wondrous creatures and learn about how and why they glow.

[Lit wall panel titled “Fluorescence” with models of minerals and gems, a scorpion, a tennis ball, and a highlighter. Suddenly, the lights turn off and the objects give off a green or red glow.]

[John Sparks standing beside the color-changing exhibition title wall.]

JOHN SPARKS (Curator, Department of Ichthyology): The purpose of this exhibition was to essentially give an overview of the diversity of creatures that both produce their own light and that produce light in other ways. So, we wanted to focus on common animals such as fireflies but also, you know, kind of bring people into the whole world of bioluminescence by showing them the vast array of creatures across the entire tree of life that produce light.

[Closeups on a small diorama of a giant, larger-than-life mushroom model that glows green. At its base is a log and leaves, with normal life-size mushrooms growing throughout, some of which glow.]

SPARKS: When you enter the Creatures of Light exhibit, the first thing you'll notice is a giant mushroom and a bunch of smaller naturally sized mushrooms in front of you in a kind of recreation of an eastern forest. And what's interesting about this - why we chose this at the beginning - not only is it very dramatic, but it also emphasizes how close to home a lot of these creatures are. Every one of the mushrooms we feature here - three species - are found in places like Central Park, all throughout the tri-state area: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey.

[Wide shot of various stations with larger-than-life firefly models and a mangrove tree.

SPARKS: The next section you'll come to in our immersive environments is the section on fireflies.

[Closeup on the body of a firefly model, down its legs to its lower abdomen that glows.]

SPARKS: And this section we wanted to start with because fireflies are a common phenomenon to people in many parts of the world.

[Model of a Mangrove tree. Underside view of firefly model flashing.

SPARKS: People have seen fireflies flashing in the summer months, but they usually don't realize how diverse fireflies are in terms of their flashing, flashing behavior, how they communicate with each other, and what they use flashing for.

[VIOLIN MUSIC]

[A couple and a young girl press buttons on a flat, disc-shaped light – flashing it on and off. Looking up on the ceiling are flashing lights arranged in different, non-specific shapes.]

NARRATOR: An interactive exhibit allows visitors to mimic firefly light patterns to communicate with fireflies.

[John Sparks standing beside the color-changing exhibition title wall. Closeup on a info panel on the Waitomo caves titled “Ceiling of Stars”.]

SPARKS: So. once you leave the firefly section of the exhibit, we enter another immersive environment and that is a recreated cave system from New Zealand, the Waitomo caves.

[John Sparks standing beside the color-changing exhibition title wall.]

SPARKS: And these are interesting because we feature what is commonly called a glow worm. It's not a worm at all. It's the larvae of a fungus gnat that lives on the ceiling of these caves.

[Recreation of a dark cave-like ceiling with small, twinkling purple lights. John Sparks at the exhibition title wall. Closeup on a graphic panel that says, “Look inside to see the glowworms”.]

SPARKS: And they suspend a sticky kind of fishing line down, which is bioluminescent, to capture any flying insects or anything else gets blown into the cave. You get caught in these sticky fishing lures or lines and the larvae pulls them back in and eats them. So, it's a very interesting way of using bioluminescence to attract prey, to get your food.

[A teen walks into the recreated cave system. He pokes his head up into an opening and sees the crystal-like shimmering “lures” hanging from the ceiling.]

SPARKS: And what's interesting about the cave system is we've designed it so people can look in not only from the sides, but children can poke their heads up from underneath and kind of get the feeling of looking into an actual New Zealand cave.

[John Sparks at the exhibition title wall.]

SPARKS: We've got thousands of these glowworms on the ceiling and it's really quite a dramatic part of the exhibition.

[Graphic panel titled “What makes a bioluminescent bay?”. A model of a Mangrove tree with tall roots that form an archway over a path.]

NARRATOR: Next, visitors journey into a bioluminescent bay where simulated dinoflagellates light up around your feet as you walk.

[A person taps hotspots on an iPad interactive called “What makes a bioluminescent bay?” that reveals information such as ideal water temperature and local flora. A wall of circular infographics in a section titled “Bioluminescent Bay”.]

SPARKS: And the one we feature is in Vieques in Puerto Rico. It's a very dramatic bioluminescent bay.

[Model of a glowing, translucent, and larger-than-life dinoflagellate, a microorganism shaped like a walnut.]

There's huge concentrations of bioluminescent dinoflagellates in here. The light emits from multiple portions of the organism - little synthons - within it. So you've got thousands of points of light within a single cell that are producing all this light you see, and it's really quite dramatic when they all flash in synchrony so you get these halos and bright glows around people that are really quite fantastic.

[Along a dark wall, two “spotlights” shine onto a created coral wall, illuminating the multi-color coral. A person taps a hotspot on a screen display that triggers an info popup about the coral.]

NARRATOR: Next, visitors are transported to a beautiful coral wall in the Cayman Islands known as Bloody Bay Wall. Painstakingly and stunningly photographed, visitors can explore the coral under different types of light and watch the undersea creatures glow.

[A boy looks at a model of a larger-than-life jellyfish and a jar of crystal jellyfish that glow a purple and aquamarine.]

SPARKS: The next section from the coral wall, we stay kind of in shallow marine waters and it focuses on jellyfishes here. The jellyfish we feature, Aequorea victoria, is the jellyfish that the green fluorescent protein was isolated from.

[John Sparks at the exhibition title wall.]

SPARKS: It's been used in so many processes now to study how cells function, how processes in the brain function.

[Zoom-out on jellyfish section with 3 larger-than-life jellyfish models hanging from the ceiling.]

SPARKS: We can tag actual cells and see them fluoresce and actually it lights up the inner workings of the cell.

[Closeup on John Sparks.]

[Model of a larger-than-life golden ponyfish, a grey fish with large yellow eyes. A sac on its side and bottom part of its body glow a light blue. A sign that reads “Live! Flashlight fish”. A black and white illustration of a fish with a large, bean-shaped spot located right beneath its eye.]

SPARKS: We come to a section where our focus is symbiotic relationships or symbioses. The two fish groups we highlight here are pony fishes, which I work on, and the flashlight fishes, which we have live examples of.

[Closeup on John Sparks.]

[Closeup on an infographic with a timeline on ponyfish evolution and their bioluminescent abilities.]

SPARKS: Both of these are interesting because they harbor bioluminescent bacteria in different parts of their body, their- generally outpouchings of their gut, their esophagus, or stomach. And what they do when they're very young, they take in bioluminescent bacteria and they grow these bacteria in such high concentrations that they continuously produce light.

[Closeup on a text panel on flashlight fish.]

SPARKS: They're great for an exhibit like this because they are one of the brightest creatures you can show.

[Two women smile and chat as they watch something off-screen.]

[Closeup on John Sparks.]

SPARKS: Even with the ambient light in the exhibit, they're extremely easy to see and people are just fascinated when they see these creatures and just how they use the light, how bright it is actually, and how much they use it.

[A group of kids peer through a viewport-like window at models that are off-screen,]

NARRATOR: Visitors can observe live flashlight fish as they swim around a simulated habitat.

[An intro graphic with an illustration of a long fish with large eyes and an open mouth with jagged teeth. Next to it, text reads “The Deep Ocean”.]

[Closeup on a shrimp model. An info panel titled “Flash and Snap” about the stoplight loosejaw’s way of spotting prey using its red “stoplight”.]

SPARKS: We move to the deep sea, which is by far the largest realm where bioluminescence occurs and it occurs in a larger variety of creatures in this realm than anywhere else.

[A model of siphonophores in a tentacle-like formation next to 3 benttooth bristlemouth, small brown-grey fish. Black & white illustration of an anglerfish with its jaw open.]

SPARKS: So much of the habitable space on Earth is contained in the deep sea. Almost all of this is dark all the time, so all these creatures that we feature here never see daylight. The only light they see is from bioluminescence.

[A low-lit model with pulsing lights. A closeup of an infographic titled “Armed and Dangerous”.]

[Closeup on John Sparks.]

SPARKS: What we tried to do is focus on presenting a number of different creatures that kind of emphasize both the different functions and just how interesting- some interesting features about bioluminescence in a variety of creatures.

[A mounted anglerfish model, emitting a soft blue light from its “fishing rod” and its jaw open wide. A vampire squid model with a dark purple-ish body and stark red eyes. A mounted model of a small fish with its jaw hanging open, emitting a red and green light from under its eye, poised to eat 3 shrimp.]

NARRATOR: Models of an anglerfish, vampire squid, and stoplight loosejaw illustrate the variety of bioluminescent creatures in the deep ocean.

[Closeup on John Sparks.]

[Video of a fish eating a red sea cucumber. As a result, the fish now glows from inside, alerting other prey in the area.]

SPARKS: In the section on the deep ocean, we also have a film put together that shows footage kind of how the techniques that have been used to obtain footage of bioluminescent organisms; a nice way to go from the models- the recreations we have on the walls to actual organisms in their environment and see how scientists study it.

[A person swipes on a tablet with slides, the first of which is “How do fireflies switch off and on?”.]

NARRATOR: Tablets packed with additional information and stationed around the exhibition allow visitors of all ages to deepen their understanding of bioluminescence.

[View of the underside of a mounted anglerfish model. A woman and a child look up at it as they read nearby info panels.]

SPARKS: What I would like to see visitors take away from visiting this exhibition is kind of twofold. First, to really get an appreciation for how widespread bioluminescence is across the tree of life for animals.

[Two boys look at a jellyfish model. Closeup of a glowing model of a Sequoia millipede.]

SPARKS: It occurs in numerous different lineages all the way up from single cell dinoflagellates through the jellyfishes and their relatives. You find it in in insects, in sea spiders even, all the way up through things like vertebrates, lots of fish. It’s extremely diverse within the marine realm and marine fishes.

[Closeup on John Sparks.]

SPARKS: So we want to kind of convey just how diverse it is across the tree of life.

[A Mangrove tree model forming an archway over a wooden boardwalk, lit in green vibrant lighting. Closeup on a fish with bulging eyes, lit in bright blue light. Closeup on the eye of a stoplight loosejaw, a red and green light glowing from under its eye.]

SPARKS: The second thing we wanted to cover was to basically recreate a number of different immersive environments so people could walk through kind of the actual habitats where these creatures occur and to get an appreciation for how they use light in these different habitats.

[A twinkling light among tree leaves. A larger-than-life model of a firefly.]

SPARKS: Bioluminescent creatures occur worldwide, so everybody depending on wherever they live in the world is familiar with some sort of bioluminescent creature.

[Close-up on a bioluminescent mineral that glows red and green once the light is turned off. Close-up on an infographic on the life cycle of a firefly. Flashing green lights on the ceiling. Visitors walking around the exhibit, interacting with different stations.]

SPARKS: Whether they live by the oceans or in terrestrial areas where they don't get down to the sea very much, they're going to be familiar with some organisms that glow and I think this exhibit is really good in that it presents not only the diversity around the world - we have examples from all over in the in the content we present - but also in how it explains in very simple terms how the phenomenon occurs.

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History]

[UPBEAT PLAYFUL MUSIC]

[A young boy walks through the exhibition, looking around.]

[A group of visitors watch a film. On the screen, a pterosaur flies by to reveal text that says “Pterosaurs: Adapted for Flight.”]

NARRATOR: They flew with their fingers.

[A man and a boy look offscreen.]

NARRATOR: They walked on their wings.

[An animation of a pterosaur flying over a marshland.]

NARRATOR: Some were gigantic, the size of an F-16 fighter jet.

[A man looks a model skeleton of a small pterosaur.]

NARRATOR: Others were as small as a paper airplane.

[A large screeching pterosaur model hangs from the ceiling. In the background, the exhibit title wall reads “Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs.”]

NARRATOR: Millions of years ago, the skies were ruled by pterosaurs, the first animals with backbones to fly-

[A boy looks on as a man points to a cast fossil of a small pterosaur skeleton. Above them, a label says “Dark Wing”.]

NARRATOR: -under their own power. In this exhibition-

[A young child runs by to join their group who are looking at a hanging model.]

NARRATOR: -step back in time to see these-

[A girl waves her arms up and down. A screen in front of her shows an animated pterosaur that’s flying based on her movements.]

NARRATOR: -close dinosaur cousins come to life.

[A boy and a girl stick magnets to a “Pterosaur Matchup” magnet wall.]

NARRATOR: Inspect dozens of-

[A girl leans in to look into a large microscope.]

NARRATOR: -rare pterosaur fossils and-

[A woman and a boy look into artifact cases of cast pterosaur bones.]

NARRATOR: -exquisite casts such as-

[Two young boys look at a fossil cast on the wall.]

NARRATOR: -Pterodactylus antiquus.

[A cast fossil in a wall display case. A label reads “Fabulous Fossil”. Next to that is a sign that says “How to Make a Fossil”.]

NARRATOR: Find out why these fossils are so rare and-

[Two men standing by a model, talking and taking notes while gesturing to it.]

NARRATOR: -how scientists study them to uncover how pterosaurs lived on land and flew in the air.

[Two girls looking down into microscopes.]

NARRATOR: Distinct from birds and bats, pterosaurs developed-

[A group of visitors look up to a huge cast fossil of a wing mounted to a wall, along with other smaller wings.]

NARRATOR: -aerodynamic adaptations, such as hollow bones and a long wing finger.

[A section called “Explore Up Close” highlights different pterosaur characteristics with colorful illustrations.]

[Three kids at separate digital stations. A boy taps on an image of a pterosaur to reveal a bio.]

NARRATOR: Explore these features and discover how pterosaurs walked, flew, ate, and more on a companion iPad app.

[A group stands by watching a girl playing “Fly Like a Pterosaur” simulator game. She flaps her arms up to fly.]

NARRATOR: At the heart of the exhibition, step into a virtual flight lab where visitors can test fly-

[A woman and a young boy use their hands to control their pterosaur in a gliding game.]

NARRATOR: -pterosaurs, large and small.

[A woman laughs as she flaps her arms like wings to fly in the simulator.]

NARRATOR: An enormous life-size model of-

[A huge pterosaur model hangs from the ceiling.]

NARRATOR: -Quetzalcoatlus northropi, one of the largest flying animals known, soars overhead.

[A man points to a fossil cast and explains the model to a young girl.]

NARRATOR: Find out how fossils are preserved and why scientists believe that we've discovered only a fraction of the pterosaur species-

[Two girls read an infographic on the different sizes of pterosaurs.]

NARRATOR: -that once lived around the globe.

[A woman walks to a case displaying cast fossil fragments of an unnamed species.]

[A closeup of the real fossil fragment.]

NARRATOR: Encounter a recent find so new it doesn't yet have a name.

[A woman looks into a case of marine specimen casts. Another woman examines a touchable fossil cast.]

NARRATOR: Enter a recreated watery world that conjures living pterosaurs in a native habitat-

[Visitors gaze up at two pterosaur models flying above a recreated wetland.]

NARRATOR: -based on evidence from a fossil bed in Brazil's Araripe Basin.

[A spinning mobile model of the pterosaur family tree. Text in the background says “Evolutionary Tree”.]

NARRATOR: Discover the diversity of pterosaurs.

[A hanging gallery of fossil casts and colorful illustrations of pterosaurs.]

NARRATOR: Some sported curious crests-

[A model of a screeching pterosaur hanging from the ceiling.]

NARRATOR: -some had long sturdy wings-

[A woman looks a large bone inside a display case. In the background, a man walks past a gallery wall.]

NARRATOR: -while others flew with short agile ones.

[A young girl looks into a microscope.]

NARRATOR: From shell-cracking beaks to comb-like teeth-

[An older woman leans towards a younger one to make a comment while pointing at the screen they’re watching.]

NARRATOR: -the adaptations are-

[A girl cheers as she completes a game. In the back, her group cheers for her, too.]

NARRATOR: -amazing.

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll. Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org).]

[EMOTIONAL VIOLIN RIFF]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History logo]

[MUSIC WITH CHIMES STARTS]

[Two women and two girls walk into a room with yellow-green lighting and its floor and walls covered in hexagonal patterns. A sign says “Imagine a world without color...”.]

[A girl runs up to grab a paddle with a butterfly on it, then joins another girl in making shadow puppets against a colorful wall.]

[A pair of visitors walk past an interactive station called “Play with Light!”.]

[A woman looks at a model of a small animal emerging from a pile of green leaves.]

[An animation of colorful paint dripping down is projected onto a wall. A text overlay says “The Nature of Color”.]

[A child plays with a mirror at an interactive station about reflections, and filters. Multicolor beams of light bounce off the other mirrors.]

[A woman poses for a selfie in front of a collage of Pantone colors inspired by human skin colors. Another woman and a child pose for a picture.]

[An animation of dripping and flowing color is projected onto a wall. Two adults wave their arms in front of it, interrupting the flow and changing its colors.]

[A woman walks into the red section of the exhibition. A long flowing dress, a football uniform, and a religious outfit are displayed in cases throughout.]

[Two visitors walk around the green section titled “Color in Nature”. Along its walls are images from nature such as leaves, flowers, feathers, and grass.]

[Closeup of a model of an orange flower and a hummingbird.]

[A boy walks into the blue section to a station in the center of barrels with touchscreens. Around him and another visitor are walls with graphics with blue patterns and objects in display cases.]

[A girl and a woman play a mini game in the yellow section. On the screen, the quiz asks, “Which color best describes the feeling of this music?”.]

[Two kids play with shadow puppets on a colorful wall.]

[MUSIC FADES]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History logo]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History]

[UPBEAT INQUISITIVE MUSIC]

[Visitors sit watching a film about scientific research on poison. A pan over a screen with a video of fish swimming in a tank. A closeup of an info panel about golden poison frogs titled “It’s not easy being green, but it’s awesome being yellow”.]

NARRATOR: In the natural world, poisons are powerful weapons made and used by countless organisms in the struggle to survive.

[A smiling woman carries a young boy on her hip and points to a frog inside a tank.]

NARRATOR: Poison has also gripped the human imagination, an essential element in the myths and history of every culture and every age.

[A group of adults walk by the dark exhibition entrance. Backlit in green light, the title says, “The Power of Poison”. A closeup of a spider model. Visitors walk through a recreated forest.]

NARRATOR: In “The Power of Poison”, explore poison's paradoxical roles in nature, human health, and history.

[A group gathers near a display case. A magnified model of bullet ants on a flower. Closeup of a model of a yellow pit viper on a branch.]

NARRATOR: Visitors will enter the dense Choco forest of Colombia, home to some of the planet's most poisonous species, where they'll discover a variety of ways that organisms have adapted to use poisons.

[A group walks past a small family gathered in front of a diorama of Emperor Qin drinking mercury.]

NARRATOR: They'll step into a fascinating world where myths, legends, and literature bring stories of poison to life.

[A diorama of Snow White in a glowing white dress asleep in a glass coffin.]

NARRATOR: Could Snow White have been poisoned with a toxin-laced apple?

[Animated illustrations of Hercules slicing off one of the Hydra’s heads are projected onto three ancient Greek vases.]

NARRATOR: How did Hercules defeat the hydra?

[Visitors stand in front of a diorama featuring three witches dressed in robes mixing a potion inside a large black cauldron spewing smoke.]

NARRATOR: What did the witches of Shakespeare's Macbeth brew in their cauldron?

[A woman talks to a young child as she points at a black top hat inside a glass case. Closeup of a Harry Potter book, a map, a wand, and a Gryffindor scarf.]

NARRATOR: What role does poison play in our favorite novels?

[An older woman looks at a diorama of a scene from Alice in Wonderland, stylized to look like a pop-up book. Two women and a young girl turn a page of a giant, glowing book. Information on a plant called Rhododendron appear on a blank page of the book.]

NARRATOR: They can turn the pages of an interactive enchanted book to discover the real power of poisonous plants and see stories of their origin and folklore magically appear.

[Visitors walk through a path with life size cutouts of Cleopatra, Ponce de Leon, and Napoleon.]

NARRATOR: Visitors will examine the truth behind legendary poisonings, such as the mysterious death of Cleopatra.

[A presenter in a white lab coat gives a demonstration to a seated audience. In the background, a presentation slide says “Toxicology. Why study poisons?”. Closeup of the presenter using lab tools in a demonstration.]

NARRATOR: They'll enter a laboratory fit for the likes of Sherlock Holmes and discover how the study of forensic science has revolutionized the detection of poisons in a live theatrical presentation.

[Two girls play a detective game at an interactive station. They look at a diorama of a dog seemingly poisoned in a backyard, with highlighted clues for their investigation.]

NARRATOR: And then use what they've learned to solve mysterious poisoning cases on an interactive iPad app.

[A woman and a young boy look into a display case with model animals. Closeup of a screen playing a video of fish swimming in a tank.]

NARRATOR: They'll find out how plant toxins and animal venoms may be used in treatments for medical conditions, ranging from coughing to cancer.

[Visitors walk through a section called “Medical Marvels”. Other signs say “Medicine from Microbes”, “Reptile Remedies”, and “Why Medicines from Venom?”.]

NARRATOR: The search for new medicines made from natural toxins has barely begun.

[Two groups of visitors sit at two different interactive stations with poison mysteries, one of an owl in a barn house, the other of a man in a ship’s cargo. Various shots of visitors chatting and interacting with the exhibition.]

NARRATOR: Visitors will be spellbound by dramatic stories of poisons in the natural world and how people throughout history have harnessed the power of poison.

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History

amnh.org]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History

The World’s Largest Dinosaurs

The World’s Largest Dinosaurs is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org).]

[Two men turn in a circle as they look up to the ceiling and see the head of sauropod munching on leaves.]

NARRATOR: Explore the amazing world of sauropods in “The World's Largest Dinosaurs”-

[Two boys use binoculars to look at a small-scale sauropod model.]

NARRATOR: -from the American Museum of Natural History.

[A young girl looks into a kind of zoetrope with a sauropod illustration.]

NARRATOR: Innovative exhibits — including a life-size-

[Pan up to look at a huge life-size dinosaur model.]

NARRATOR: -detailed model of a 60-foot long Mamenchisaurus — take-

[Wide shot of a “fleshy” model of Mamenchisaurus that shows its muscles and bones.]

NARRATOR: -visitors into the bodies of these titans, shedding light on how heartrate-

[An animation is projected on the side of a dinosaur model. It shows the animal’s lungs breathing in and out.]

NARRATOR: -respiration, metabolism, and reproduction-

[A group gathers around a tour guide to look at two cast sauropod skulls.]

NARRATOR: -are linked to size.

MARK NORELL (Curator Emeritus, Department of Paleontology): This dinosaur show is really about the biology-

[A woman and a girl explore a touchable interactive station together.]

NORELL: -of dinosaurs. We wanted to go sort beyond-

[At a section titled “breathe”,

NORELL: -just the bones and really talk about these animals as living, breathing creatures.

[Mark Norell standing in front of a giant cast bone. A sauropod mural is in the background.]

NORELL: And sauropods lived on every continent, and they lived for a very long stretch of time. So, in the show itself we talk about animals from all over the planet.

[Shot looking up at the head of a model sauropod chewing on leaves.]

NORELL: The giant Mamenchisaurus behind me is from China.

[Mark Norell standing in front of a giant cast bone, gesturing to the sauropod mural behind him.]

NORELL: Back here, some of the dinosaurs are from South America.

[Closeup of a small model of Camarasaurus grandis, a brown sauropod with white stripes.]

NORELL: We have some of the familiar dinosaurs from North America as well. So, these things were found-

[Mark Norell standing in front of a giant cast bone.]

NORELL: -everywhere during the entire time of the traditional dinosaurs.

[Closeup of a cast fossil bone.]

NORELL: In the show itself, we talk about some of the new sciences being done.

[A woman explores a touchable cast fossil bone on a stand.]

NARRATOR: Cutting edge science, such as CAT scans of vertebrae, electron microscopy-

[Closeup of a panel titled “Building a Better Neck” with various diagrams of sauropod bones.]

NARRATOR: -even using trace elements in fossils to calculate age is-

[Closeup of panel that reads “On the surface” and describes the skin and scale texture of sauropods.]

NARRATOR: -discussed through the exhibition.

[A family walks into the exhibition. The title wall says “The World’s Largest Dinosaurs” on a background image of a forest. Above them is the head of a sauropod.]

NORELL: When visitors first enter the gallery, they're going to be met by a neck sticking out of a forest of Argentinosaurus.

[A boy and a girl look at a model of a Komodo dragon skeleton.]

NARRATOR: A comparison of modern animals helps visitors begin thinking about scale and size-

[Two men walk further into the exhibition, looking up at the sauropod that towers above them.]

NARRATOR: -before they turn the corner to meet the Mamenchisaurus.

[A human skeleton stands as a size comparison next to a cast leg bone of a sauropod.]

NORELL: Throughout the show, I mean, one of the things we try to do is we try to bring it back to comparisons with ourselves, you know-

[A group of visitors read info panels about sauropod leg bones.]

NORELL: -with people. Because I think that it's something that everybody will relate to a little bit better.

[UPBEAT DRUM MUSIC]

[Wide shot of a giant sauropod model that stretches up to the ceiling and across the entire exhibition.]

NORELL: The Mamenchisaurus itself we modeled it so it would represent what it looked like when it was alive on one side and then on the other side what it would look like that if you strip the skin off-

[Zoom out look at the “dissected” side of the giant sauropod model, showing its internal muscles and bone structure.]

NORELL: as if you had it in a dissection laboratory and you were able to go in and peer at its internal organs. Everything from its skeletal system, its muscular system, its circulatory system, its pulmonary system, its lungs and the like, its reproductive system.

[Visitors sit to watch a projection playing on the “dissected” side of the giant sauropod model.]

NORELL: And we use a theater on the side of the animal to be able to be able to depict these things as the animal would have looked like when it was alive.

[A man and a woman look at a small scale model of a sauropod. A sign off to the side says “Skin”.]

NORELL: Around the sauropod, we have a number of little stations-

[Two young children push buttons at an interactive station.]

NORELL: -that talk about different aspects of its biology and physiology.

[A girl pulls up a metal bar to measure herself.]

NORELL: Throughout the show, we try to use interactives-

[Bright LED numbers count up and down as a man adjusts a slider at a measuring station in front of a cast sauropod femur. A label reads “Step 2: Enter the length.”]

NORELL: -to be able to support our message. So, we have interactives about how do we know how big these animals got.

[Two children play at an interactive station where they can virtually feed a dinosaur.]

NORELL: We have interactives about how much they ate. We have interactives about-

[A young man and woman use pumps to mimic sauropod respiration.]

NORELL: -how their heart and their lungs work. So, you know, we hope that these will — by engaging people physically — that they'll help teach people what we're trying to say.

[A woman with a group of young kids explore a station with a sauropod femur.]

NORELL: The museum has the largest collection of fossil vertebrates in the world-

[Three visitors look at a cast of an Argentinosaurus vertebra.]

NORELL: -and, throughout the show-

[A pan down the length of a cast femur.]

NORELL: we've tried to incorporate some of the pieces into that. We have a femur.-

[Closeup of a Brachiosaurus vertebra.]

NORELL: We have vertebrae of different sauropod dinosaurs.

[Closeup on the teeth of a cast skeleton.]

NORELL: We have teeth of different sauropod dinosaurs.

[A Diplodocus hemisected braincase at a station titled “The Big Enough Brain”.]

NORELL: We have a brain case of a Diplodocus.

[A woman and a little girl explore a station with multiple touchable bones.]

NORELL: So, in these stations, to show some of these principles, we use things like touch specimens of real specimens that we have.

[A glass case containing fake leaves, grass, and shrubbery. On the case, a label reads “Can you imagine working your way through a salad this big? The sauropod in our gallery did just that – every single day!”.]

NORELL: These animals had to eat tremendous amounts.

[Closeup of a case full of leaves marked with text that reads “An Hour’s Food”. In the background is the head of a sauropod wall decal.]

NORELL: For one of these animals this size to live, it would have had to eat about a 5.5 ft cube of food.

[A woman and a girl look at large case stuffed with leaves and other greens.]

NORELL: -and we have that depicted in the exhibit.

[A woman and a man walk down the length of a large mural piece featuring sauropods of all colors and sizes]

NORELL: As part of the exhibit, we commissioned a mural to be made of lots of different sauropod dinosaurs. I mentioned the Argentinosaurus. You can just basically see the under part of its belly and it's sort of pillar-like legs.

[FAST DRUM MUSIC]

[Closeup of small scale models of various sauropods.]

NORELL: Throughout the exhibit, I think that it's very kid-friendly. We've tried to put things at low-

[A man and a boy look down at a long, short case with a skeleton model inside.]

[A girl looks down into a small, illuminated case. Next to a picture of a dinosaur egg, text says, “Tiny Windows on a Dinosaur’s World”.]

NORELL: -levels, so kids can see it without being lifted up.

[FAST DRUM MUSIC]

[Closeup of Mark Norell.]

NORELL: I think one of the most interesting sections is the reproduction and nesting-

[A girl stands in front of a station called “Compare Eggs” with a large white egg model and multiple other smaller ones.]

NORELL: -area. I mean, there we talk about both the eggshell and how-

[Closeup on sauropod egg model.]

NORELL: -the pores in the eggshell allow the developing embryos to breathe through the egg while they're developing.

[Closeup on a clear case with a sauropod embryo model.]

NORELL: We talk about nest construction and we have a recreation of a nest-

[Closeup of a model nest with 10 eggs, one of which has been crushed open by a sauropod hatchling.]

NORELL: -based on nests which have been excavated in South America.

[A group of children play in a dig pit.]

NORELL: At the end of the exhibit, we have sort of a faux dig pit. It's a recreation of an area called Moehau Quarry.

[A staff person answers a question from a young boy.]

[FAST DRUM MUSIC]

[A crowd of visitors sit near a sauropod model, chatting. Another group explores an interactive station. Closeup of a sauropod heart model. It lights up to the rhythm of a heartbeat.]

NORELL: This show, I think, will appeal to people of every age. I mean, we have things that are just sort of neat to look at for people who are either are too little to read or people who read other languages.

[Mark Norell standing in front of a dinosaur bone model.]

NORELL: -We also have things that go in depth pretty significantly about animals, so people with very sophisticated scientific knowledge, I think, will walk away from it learning something.

[Decal of sauropod tracks on a hardwood floor. Pan up to giant sauropod model and various closeups of its features.]

NORELL: There's sort of a cartoon version of sauropods, which are out there, as them being sort of stupid, lumbering animals. Just, you know, walking along and not even knowing where they were. But I mean, I think that if you look at their success of living from about 230 million years ago all the way up to 65 million years ago on every continent-

[Close shot of a sauropod vertebra cast.]

NORELL: and leaving a very rich fossil record - both in the cases of bones as well as footprints nests and eggs – that's the real measure of their success.

[A model sauropod head towers over the exhibition wall, peeking through branches. Slow pan over to the exhibition title wall where text reads "World’s Largest Dinosaurs”.]

NORELL: They're one of the most impressive and long-lasting groups of animals ever to walk on Earth.

[FAST DRUM MUSIC]

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credit.

www.amnh.org/traveling]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History

Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids]

[MUSIC]

[Wide shot of the exhibition, with visitors at various stations and a colorful parade dragon hanging overhead. Closeup of a hanging model of a flying roc, a giant mythical bird. Model of a unicorn, lit by pink lights.]

NARRATOR: For many centuries, humans around the world have brought mythic creatures to life in stories music and works of art. Today, these creatures continue to delight us.

[Fast zoom at the exhibition title wall. Text reads “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids”. Fade into a photo of a gallery wall with art depicting mermaids.]

NARRATOR: Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids traces the natural and cultural roots of some of the world's most enduring mythological creatures.

[AMBIENT MUSIC]

[Text overlay reads “An exhibition organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with The Field Museum, Chicago, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau-Ottawa, Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, and Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta.”]

[Replicas of ceremonial masks and paintings and art pieces from various cultures. Visitors look at cases with cultural objects inspired by dragons. Closeup on a painted plate, embroidered mermaid, and a jade sculpture.]

NARRATOR: This amazing exhibition includes eye-popping models, paintings, [and] textiles - along with other cultural objects from around the world, ranging from shadow puppets to Japanese armor, that bring to light surprising similarities and differences in the ways people have been inspired by nature to envision and depict these strange and wonderful creatures.

[Mark Norell sits with a desk, a monitor behind him showing a picture of a Roc model. Closeup on a cast of an ape’s lower jaw. A person moves puzzle pieces at a station called “Build a Griffin”. Super closeup on the eye of a model dragon.]

MARK NORELL (Curator, Department of Paleontology): When we originally conceived of the exhibit, it came really out of paleontology because some of us were just sitting around talking about that how people in the past and in historic times would have looked at fossils that they found, how they would have interpreted them, and their relationship to the myths about dragons and about giants and other things and the whole interplay of whether or not these fossils that they encountered all the time actually were the root of those myths or whether they were interpreted in light of those myths.

[A large model of a green dragon, with an angular head, sharp teeth, and bony spikes along its spine. Its pointed tail curves upward and its wings are slightly spread behind it.]

[Laurel Kendall stands in a long hallway with rows of archived collections items. A visitor looks up at a unicorn model.]

LAUREL KENDALL (Curator, Department of Anthropology): When you enter Mythic Creatures, you're in a fantastic world of light and shadow, a magical world a different ambiance. And although you will see some natural history-like reproductions of a unicorn, of a roc, of a dragon circling overhead, they're presented in a very playful way and in a very playful light constellation. You know that what you're looking at comes from dreams, comes from stories.

[Exhibition title wall reads “Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, and Mermaids”. Next to it is a model of an angry green dragon.]

NARRATOR: Visitors are greeted upon entering by a 17-foot long dragon, perhaps the most famed of mythic creatures. Dragons are found on land, in air, and water throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas. They are featured throughout the exhibit.

[A sign says “Water: Creatures of the Deep”. A giant kraken model with red eyes and huge tentacles that weave into and around various cases and structures. A replica of a giant squid tentacle encased in liquid. An illustration of various ginat sea creatures in a book.]

KENDALL: As you walk into “Creatures of the Eater”, the first section of the exhibit, one of the first things you see is a giant kraken. A great giant squid-like creature rising from the depths of the gallery floor and next to it a tentacle from an actual giant squid. Much smaller, much less threatening-looking. But you can imagine people when they caught a glimpse of a tentacle imagining something even more monstrous and threatening lurking in the depths, reaching up, pulling the ship to its doom with long tentacles.

[A mechanical theater with ocean waves and swimming dolphins.]

NARRATOR: But horrors like the kraken and sea monsters are not the only creatures who call the water home.

[A sign says “Becoming Mermaids. Why do so many water spirits look like mermaids?”.]

KENDALL: We have a display of mermaids.

[Metallic engraving of a mermaid hanging on a wall.]

KENDALL: Mermaids are something that sailors reported widely in the so-called age of exploration.

[A golden statue of a mermaid. Behind it is a hanging model of a manatee.]

KENDALL: We understand now that what they probably saw were large sea mammals - manatees, for example.

[Banner depicting a mermaid holding a fish and blowing a horn-like instrument. A Model of a “feejee” mermaid. A mermaid’s face and hair carved into a ship figurehead made of stone.]

NARRATOR: Voodoo banners from Haiti depicting the mermaid Lasirèn, a hoax "feejee” mermaid, and an early 20^th-century ship figurehead illustrate conceptions of mermaids from around the world.

[Stone carving of a mermaid-like creature with a small human attending to it. A woven sculpture of a human-like creature standing and patterned in stripes.]

NARRATOR: They are joined by stone carvings of Sedna, an Inuit goddess, and sculptures of Yawkyawk, a water spirit from Australia.

[A sign says “Land: Creatures of the Earth”. An all-white unicorn model stands tall above visitors, head down and long horn pointed up.]

KENDALL: In the second section, creatures of the land the first thing your eye goes to is a white unicorn bathed in a kind of luminous purple light.

NARRATOR: Many of the creatures of the land appear to have body parts from ordinary animals combined in unusual ways.

[A page from a book with an illustration of a unicorn. A large cast femur. Closeup on a cast dwarf elephant skull. An ornamental black and orange vase, with its end made to look like the head of a griffin with horns.]

NARRATOR: Horses gain narwhale tusks to become unicorns. The enormous bones of mammoths, mastodons, and woolly rhinoceroses found by ancient Greeks may have inspired tales of giants, while bones of fossil dwarf elephants might have inspired tales of the cyclops. And dinosaur bones may have inspired another strange creature.

[Mark Norell sits with a desk, a monitor behind him showing a picture of a Roc model. Cast of a Protoceratops spine and skull with a sharp, parrot-like beak.]

NORELL: Well, one of the stories that we really bring out in the exhibit is the story about the Protoceratops. And Protoceratops is a small, herbivorous dinosaur found in Central Asia and the specimens where they're found are incredibly common. I work in Central Asia and we can walk to some of these places and see 10 or 12 specimens in a single day. So, obviously, people in the past would have encountered them also.

[A tall golden statue of a griffin standing on its hind legs, beak open and wings extended. A smaller blue ceramic statue of a griffin, posed with its front paws on a wheel.]

NARRATOR: Protoceratops skeletons look remarkably like the head of the griffin - a half-eagle, half-lion beast rumored to live in the east, the same area in which Protoceratops are found.

[A red mask with red bulging eyes, large fangs, and a golden ornamental collar. A model of a giant great ape with dark fur and a grey face called Gigantopithecus.]

NARRATOR: Other land creatures include the barong represented by Balinese dancers with masks. And the Yeti, who may have been based on giant extinct apes.

[Sign says “Air: Creatures of the Sky”.]

KENDALL: In the third section, we ascend. We're with the creatures of the air.

[Closeup on a golden silk panel with images of white birds. A ceramic piece of a person sitting on the back of a giant green bird. A tan statuette of a person sitting on a phoenix, both adorned in ceremonial attire.]

NARRATOR: Air is the realm of the Phoenix, an Asian bird of good omens shown here in a richly embroidered Chinese silk panel and a glazed clay roof charm and the Garuda, now the national symbol of Thailand and Indonesia.

[A floor sign titled “Greek Myths: How old are Greek myths?” next to a display case with a golden plate. Closeup on a model of white winged horse adorned in golden armor. A red mask with wide eyes and long grey hair, beard, and brows. A woman looks up at model offscreen.]

NARRATOR: Greek mythology contributes the monster Sphinx and the winged horse Pegasus, while Japan's goblin-like tengu is represented by a carved figurine. And the biggest bird of them all sails over visitors heads.

[A photo of a huge model hanging from the ceiling of a brown bird with raised talons poised to strike. Closeup of Mark Norell. Far shot of a model elephant bird, an emu-like, long-necked, dark-feathered bird standing on two large legs.]

NORELL: There are other stories that are really—could possibly be tied to fossil animals. And one of the classic ones is the Roc, which was a giant bird that's mentioned in The Arabian Nights, that was, you know, ferocious, ate elephants, and lived in far-off places. There is some evidence that that story could have come from the elephant bird, which was the largest bird to ever live. It weighed about a ton. It inhabited Madagascar up until quite recently. When the first explorers got to Madagascar, for instance, it was still alive, even though they never saw one. But certainly the indigenous people of Madagascar would have encountered these things on a daily basis.

[A sign says “Dragons: Creatures of Power” with an illustration of a dogs and a cavalry knight fighting a Western dragon. Closeup of a colorful illustration of an angry Eastern dragon. Black and white illustration of a dragon with bat-like wings and a serpent’s tail.]

KENDALL: The grand finale of this exhibit is a room devoted to dragons. Dragons exist in the earth, on the earth, in the air, in the water. They are East and they are West, but they're different.

[Closeup of a stone statue of a knight with a boot on the snout of a fallen Western dragon. A colorful Chinese parade dragon hanging from the ceiling, long and flowing. A robe with a pattern of fire, clouds, and a golden dragon.]

KENDALL: The Western dragon is a fallen angel. The Western dragon is satanic. In the East — in China, in Korea, in Japan, in Vietnam — the dragon has a different meaning. Dragons can cause mischief, dragons can bring floods, dragons can bring droughts, but the dragon is the powerful ruler. And when people behave, when there's harmony in the world, then the dragon rises up to heaven and brings rain. And rain is absolutely essential if you are an agricultural society as these societies were.

[Visitors moving pieces around a Build a Griffin puzzle. Close-up of a hand touching a life-size reproduction of a Haast’s eagle talon. Two kids play a game called Build a Dragon on a touchscreen.]

KENDALL: As with all of our exhibits, there are a lot of interactives in the gallery. Interactives that draw in the younger visitors, but some of them for the older visitors, too. One of the most popular was the Build a Dragon experience.

[Portraits of people with tattoos, costumes, collections, and more. A sign reads “Personal Stories”.]

NARRATOR: A wall of photographic portraits of people of all ages are accompanied by their stories about how mythic creatures inspire and influence them in their own lives.

[Slow pan up a portrait of a person with a colorful Phoenix tattoo that covers their entire back.]

KENDALL: Anywhere this exhibit travels it can be customized to local people and their own understandings of mythic creatures.

[A model of a green Western dragon. Model of a hammerhead shark hanging from the ceiling. Acrylic model of a red Eastern dragon. A metal incense burner in the shape of a beast. A face mask with wide painted eyes and a green upper half and striped lower half. Wall with mermaid art. Zoomed-out look of the exhibition, including a griffin statue, knight statue, and unicorn model.]

NORELL: The exhibit really turned out to be much more popular than we ever thought. In fact, it’s one of the most popular exhibits that we've ever had at the Museum. I think that's really because it appeals to all different kinds of people and all different ages of people who come to it with really, really different sorts of interests. So, it's not like an exhibit on one particular focused thing. It's an exhibit about all of us and all the cultures that we sprang from.

[MUSIC DRIFTS OFF]

[Credits roll.

American Museum of Natural History logo]