The concept of sea monsters has captivated us for hundreds of years. May there actually be one thing scary lurking in the dead of night depths? Folklore and common tradition say sure, but science urges us to dive a bit deeper.
“Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Creativeness” is a brand new exhibition on the Harvard Museum of Pure Historical past, one of many 4 Harvard Museums of Science & Tradition, which investigates the thriller and lore behind a number of the ocean’s most fascinating creatures. It was impressed by a preferred course taught by Peter Girguis, visitor curator and Harvard professor of natural and evolutionary biology.
“This course is known as a survey of humankind’s relationship with the ocean, from historical mariners to present political affairs,” he mentioned. “What’s been most rewarding is seeing the scholars notice how vital the ocean is to humanity and the way we frequently apply monstrosity to issues we merely don’t perceive.”
Sea monsters are a common phenomenon, showing within the myths and legends of cultures world wide. Nevertheless, many of those thrilling tales come from actual creatures hidden within the deep. Within the exhibition, guests will ask themselves: Do sea monsters exist? And if that’s the case, what do they inform us about ourselves and our reference to the ocean?
Historic mythology depicts the ocean as a realm of chaos, crammed with fearsome creatures just like the Greek Hydra. Hindu mythology conjured the Makara, a sea monster that symbolizes safety and luck. In African folklore, creatures just like the Mngwa and the Inkanyamba are feared as evil water spirits. Nevertheless, with trendy science and applied sciences, we higher perceive the lives of the true creatures behind these legends. For example, the New England-based Scituate Sea Monster was finally recognized as a decaying basking shark; the Kraken in Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Beneath the Sea” is probably going the enigmatic deep-sea big squid.
Harvard Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Peter Girguis visits the exhibit “Sea Monsters: Wonders of Nature and Creativeness” on the Harvard Museum of Pure Historical past.
Guests will uncover the existence of sea creatures whose actual lives are sometimes extra astonishing than the fantastical beings we could have imagined. Guests can see these creatures firsthand when peering into shows of specimens from the Museum of Comparative Zoology’s in depth collections, comparable to a viperfish, the tentacle and beak of an enormous squid, and a Megalodon shark tooth.
The exhibition options historic illustrations of those fabled monsters and detailed historical mariners’ maps. Historic maps held vital cultural data, typically revealed by means of depictions of mythological creatures that served as warnings of harmful and uncharted waters. Additionally on show is a Peruvian ceramic pot made by the traditional Moche individuals, which reveals a crab with human-like options dropping a battle with a god. A two-foot Gregorian reflecting telescope made round 1750, embellished with two sea serpents, additionally seems within the gallery.
Sloane’s viperfish, courtesy of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard College.
Tentacles and tooth are ceaselessly related to monsters of the ocean. In actuality, tentacles are vital and adaptable instruments used to sense the setting, catch meals, and for defense. Surprisingly, the viperfish’s needle-like fangs really feel extra like toothbrush bristles than daggers. And whereas the deep-sea anglerfish could look scary, most are only a few inches lengthy and solely eat small fish and shrimp. Many of those creatures are captured in eerie and beautiful deep-sea images by Solvin Zankl and others.
The exhibition explores how ocean ecosystems are threatened by creatures such because the crown-of-thorns starfish which feeds on coral polyps and Sargassum seaweed which is rising uncontrolled in some locations as a result of agricultural-nutrient runoff, creating useless zones within the ocean and overwhelming seashores. Much more monstrous than these invaders are the pressures we people place on the ocean. Plastic air pollution and human-influenced local weather change are endangering marine life and ecosystems. These are the true sea monsters and the exhibition reveals that we have now the prospect to work towards sustainable options that shield our oceans for future generations.
The exhibition is open to the general public by means of June 26, 2026.
Girguis shares info on two illustrations with captions that learn: “Gustave Dore’s illustration for Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem ‘Orlando Furioso’ reveals a knight combating a monstrous sea creature” and “Victor Nehlig (1830-1909) was a French painter identified for his dramatic and narrative scenes. This illustration reveals an enormous squid attacking a ship, depicting the damaging encounter between people and a sea monster, with the crew combating for his or her lives.”
Younger guests from the neighborhood. Coral and Alexander Ain. watch a projection of the movie “Jaws” inside the exhibit.
A set of maps used for navigation, together with a map of Cape Cod (1926) created by Mélanie Elizabeth Leonard of Massachusetts, are on show. Courtesy of the Harvard Map Assortment, Harvard Library.
