More than 60 reptiles are creeping, crawling, slinking and slithering their way to Museum of Science, Boston. Museum presents Lizards & Snakes: Alive! This traveling exhibit — New England's largest display of lizards and snakes — features animals from five continents, some familiar, others exotic.
Visitors will witness, up-close, live animals and their remarkable adaptations, including projectile tongues that snap up prey, deadly venom, amazing camouflage for self-defense, and surprising modes of locomotion. Representing 26 species from diverse habitats in Australia, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, Kenya, Madagascar, Mexico, Sudan, and the United States, the specimens range from a four-inch tropical girdled lizard to a 14-foot Burmese python and are shown in realistic settings complete with ponds, tree limbs, rock ledges, and live plants. These spaces are specially designed to encourage natural behaviors.
Lizards & Snakes: Alive! showcases an incredible array of squamates, the group that comprises legged and legless lizards, including snakes. Species on display include:
>Rhinoceros iguana (Cyclura cornuta): found on Hispaniola and neighboring islands where they live mostly on cactus fruits, flowers, and other vegetation. Courtship occurs during a single two-week period each year, during which the male waits patiently for the female to emerge from her burrow so he can attempt to impress her by bobbing his head and displaying his strength. This drama may repeat itself over the course of several days before he wins her over.
>Frilled lizards (Chlamydosaurus kingii): to look menacing, they expand a thin fold of skin that pops out around their necks like an automatic umbrella. The frill, which usually hangs like a cape, can be one foot across when erect.
>Gila monsters (Heloderma suspectum) are one of only two highly venomous lizards. Their venom is channeled through special grooves in their teeth, and, when mixed with saliva and the blood of their prey, kills or disables them. This potent venom has components that are being studied for diabetes treatment.
>Burmese pythons (Python molurus) have beautifully patterned skin that helps them blend into the shadows of the forest floor but also threatens their survival. Pythons are hunted for their hides, which are used to make clothing and accessories. Females are more at risk; larger than males, they can reach up to 23 feet in length.
Lizards & Snakes features many interactive stations where visitors can listen to recorded squamate sounds, encounter live geckos, test their knowledge about these fascinating creatures, explore the inner workings of a rattlesnake on the prowl, and view videos of lizards and snakes in the wild. The Squamate Studio, an activity center located at the end of the exhibition, features hands-on displays, games, and puzzles where visitors of all ages can match lizards with their native habitats, assemble squamate skeletons, and test their knowledge.
Lizards & Snakes will also highlight a variety of fossil specimens including a fossil cast of Megalania, the largest-known terrestrial squamate, which attained lengths up to 9.5 meters (30 feet). This ancient relative of today's monitor lizard lived in Australia during the Pleistocene (from 1.6 million to 40,000 years ago).
Lizards & Snakes: Alive! will be presented at the Museum of Science through April 27, 2008. This traveling exhibit was organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta, and the San Diego Natural History Museum, with appreciation to Clyde Peeling's Reptiland. -- www.mos.org
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