My 9-year-old daughter looked at the blob-like manatee displayed at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and was bewildered.
“How could sailors mistake manatees for mermaids?,” she asked — one of many observations raised during a recent tour of the museum’s intriguing exhibit, ” ,” which runs through September.
The traveling exhibit allows visitors to discover the link between nature and myth, “exploring the origin and significance of legendary creatures of the air, land and water.”
models of dragons, a full-sized unicorn, and a kraken, whose squid-like body snakes through the floor. The presentation explains how many of these creatures of fantasy were based on real animals, such as the manatee.
Yet, the exhibit has been criticized as being edutainment, a scientific farce, an affront to the serious museum experience.
“Unbelievable,” said an outraged friend in reaction to a photo from the exhibit I posted on Facebook.
The green-screen image allows visitors to put themselves in the same frame as a fire-breathing dragon or unicorn.
“This is what our local ‘science’ museum is up to,” the friend wrote in his own post, sharing my photo.
It is not the lone complaint. Denver Museum of Nature & Science educator Samantha Richards said she heard grumblings when the exhibit opened. People wondered why the museum is devoting space to something not real.
It raises a good question. Should a museum have an exhibit about the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the tooth fairy?
“Our response is this exhibit does have a lot of science in it,” Richards said.
The mythical beasts may not be real, but the fantasies around them are. And it is intensely interesting to find out how that lore developed.
For example, the myth of the cyclops may have been created after fossil discoveries of dwarf elephants. Their skulls have holes in the middle for the trunk, but those were mistaken to be single eye sockets for a cyclops.
The unicorn may have originated from the discovery of a tust or horn on a narwhal whale. And the kraken sea monster was probably in reality a large squid.
This is scientific discovery at work — people exploring the world, interpreting what they find, and coming to conclusions, which sometimes can be wrong.
“We have to balance fun and the science,” Richards said. “People love learning about these cool creatures and they love to share the experience.”
The modern museum may be at a crossroads. People are concerned exhibits have become too entertainment-based and have lost their scholarly integrity. Exhibits today include interactive technology, kid-friendly learning stations and photo ops for people to share their experiences on social media.
Perhaps using mythical creatures is a devious way to get people in the door. But if they learn something about the world, cultures and history, what’s wrong with that?
For my kids, “Mythic Creatures” raised questions and provoked further exploration. And it sent us home with a cool photo of a dragon burning us alive.
E-mail Jeremy Meyer at jpmeyer@ denverpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jpmeyerdpost
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