From Utah, to Florida and Loch Ness, Stephen is on a quest to uncover the mystery of why the world of mythical beasts is so popular.Īdding to the excitement, Stephen will have an exclusive interview with J.K. In collaboration with the Natural History Museum, Stephen will discover the stories about some of the world's most spectacular creatures as he travels across the world. The great museum Owen created, as this enjoyable exhibition reveals, is a cathedral of the imagination as well as facts.Īt the Natural History Museum, London, until summer 2021.'Fantastic Beasts: A Natural History' release dateįantastic Beasts: A Natural History will air on BBC1 at 7pm on Sunday, Feb. Monsters or animals? The first book on them called these Jurassic creatures “sea dragons”. Leaving the exhibition, you emerge into a gallery walled with fossil sea reptiles, many found by Mary Anning in Lyme Regis in the early 1800s. In fact, it is a male Lawes’s parotia, or bird of paradise. A bird with dazzling silvery feathers and dangling fascinators looks like a movie creation, and not a very realistic one. One display left me genuinely confused between what is Hollywood and what is nature. Giant squids are at the very edge of science: little is known about them.įlying snakes, expanding fish, shrinking shrews – the real natural histories make the stuff from the films look tame. Extracted from a whale’s stomach, it comes from the museum’s huge, uncanny collection of specimens in spirit. Equally incredible is a pickled giant squid. The oarfish is real yet its lengthy skeleton looks disturbingly fantastical. The Fantastic Beasts films may not be brilliant, but Rowling’s imaginary creatures are in a great tradition of marvels prowling around the margins of scientific classification. The Harry Potter-addled scientists who found this skull gave it the Latin name Dracorex hogwartsia. The most dream-like object here is the skull of a dinosaur discovered in South Dakota in 2004, covered with unexpectedly elegant and ornate spikes. Science rejected fantasy creatures as it revealed real wonders. This puts his fascination with sea monsters in another light. It was Richard Owen who named the Dinosauria in the Victorian era, when fossils started to be understood as the remains of extinct species. There’s a sample of dried dragon blood once owned by Hans Sloane, from whose collections the Natural History Museum began.ĭinosaurs are the proof there really are, or have been, fabulous beings. And the pioneers of science were joyously inclusive of the weird. The Renaissance expanded the gallery of monsters by adding classical myths to medieval lore. This exhibition shows, in an entertaining way, that natural history didn’t evolve by eradicating those marvels – it grew by curiosity. Modern science started in the Renaissance, when people believed in all manner of wondrous beasts. The mermaid is juxtaposed with an accurate depiction of a crayfish. This volume was published in 18th-century France, during the Enlightenment. Another rare book from the Natural History Museum library is opened at a colour picture of a mermaid, or “siren”, seen by sailors near Borneo. Science, as well as popular culture, took mermaids seriously for a surprisingly long time. Of course, this one isn’t real, but rather a 19th-century sideshow attraction made from assorted animal parts. She’s half-fish, half-Norman Bates’ mother. Half-fish, half Norman Bates’ mum … Buxton Mermaid.Īnother mermaid nearby uses a clawed hand to stroke back the dried hair from her tiny shrivelled face. As well as being family fun, the show delightfully reveals some of the oddest things in this museum’s vast collections. The picture of a colossal serpent with staring eyes menacing a modern ship is a surreal slice of steampunk.įantastic Beasts is much more than a celebration of JK Rowling’s film series about magic animal expert Newt Scamander and his cute pets, although Newt does feature heavily, along with recreations of Nifflers and the like. It’s in the museum’s new show about natural mysteries, open at a story from The Illustrated Police News – usually full of true crimes – about the latest sea monster sighting. This Victorian scientist didn’t actually sail the oceans massacring monsters, but he did set out to prove such creatures were tall tales told by sailors, collecting reports in an album so he could expose them. Although his nickname was Sea Serpent Killer, Richard Owen is best known today as the founder of the Natural History Museum, and as an all-round rival-crushing anti-Darwinian scoundrel.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |