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Date: April 21, 2006
Author: Jonathan Bell

NEW ANIMALS FEATURED IN EXPLORIT EXHIBIT

Paging through the journal of a scientist can give an interesting snapshot of that person's thoughts and ideas. Similarly, when flipping through the observation logs placed throughout Explorit's newest exhibition, "What an Animal!" it's easy to see what has been exciting and intriguing for visitors. One entry reads, "The walking stick looks like a stick! It is cool." Another young scientist queries, "Why are the cichlids looking around?" and continues by noting, "they look like they are fighting for space. Are they?"

"What an Animal! Fins and Feathers and Other Creature Features" opened March 18 and runs through June 11. One of Explorit's educators, Bethany Dengler-Germain, explained the focus of the new exhibition. "These activities help visitors learn about and compare different animal adaptations, or features, and then think about how that helps them in the wild," she said.

When asked what he liked about the exhibition one visitor, Alexander, age 7, said, "I came all the way from England and I had fun seeing the animals!" Cousin Chloe, age 5, piped in, "I liked petting the snake most."

"When kids come in they often gravitate towards the lung," said another of Explorit's educators, Kristin Sizemore. The lung is actually a real pair of sheep's lungs and is part of an activity examining how different animals breathe. By inflating the lungs using a foot-operated air pump visitors have the opportunity to observe how mammals breathe. The live salamander nearby, which breathes primarily through its skin, provides an interesting contrast.

Around the corner visitors will find the new home of some of Explorit's oldest residents, the Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Their surprisingly loud hiss is an intriguing example of how animals can communicate, in this case, to warn of danger, define territories, and signal for a mate. 

Positioned directly below these well-known creatures, providing another interesting comparison, are death's head cockroaches. The unpleasant sounding name of these creatures is derived not from their temperament but instead from the dark marking positioned on their thorax, near their head. Given the right lighting and a little imagination that dark marking can take on the appearance of an intimidating visage. 

An activity nearby challenges visitors to reassemble the model bones of a human arm and compare it to the pre-assembled forelimbs of both a harbour seal and a mountain lion. This activity helps highlight the important idea that sometimes animals of different species can have similar features. Sometimes these similarities can suggest close genetic relationships, as with the animals in this activity. Before scientists were able to use DNA to establish genetic relationships between animals comparisons like this one often formed the basis for classifying animals into their many different orders, phylla, families and so on.

For guests who need a moment of calm and are interested in learning more about sea life off the coast of Northern California, the new salt-water tank offers excellent refuge. The California sea animals tank, presented by the section of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, presents a collection of animals including sea stars, a gumboot chiton, and an anemone. All these animals and the water they are in come from Bodega Bay.

"What an Animal!" continues through June 11. Check out this new exhibit to learn how some animals eat, hear, breathe and move. Examine a live whip scorpion, watch hermit crabs drag their homes around behind them and touch real feathers and furs. Visitors might even learn which animal can eat 4 tons of food a day and which animal can eat over 10,000,000 termites in a day.

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Explorit Science Center is at 3141 Fifth St. in East Davis. The current exhibition "What an Animal! Fins and Feathers and Other Creature Features" runs through June 11. Public hours are Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.explorit.org or call Explorit at (530) 756-0191.