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You could call it an unfortunate misunderstanding. But its impact is as vast as the oceans.

I’m referring to the terror sharks inspired, which is, American Museum of Natural Historylargely due to ignorance and “hundred-year-old hype.” (“jawsHowever, shark attacks are rare and usually occur when: fish people are wrong for something much more delicious, like a seal.) This is the Manhattan museum new exhibition “They’re not for you,” he says playfully of these extraordinary creatures.

But the 8500 square meter show “SharksOpening Wednesday with life-size models, hands-free interactions, startling displays, and serious warnings about extinction, ” offers plenty of reasons to join them.

“We wanted to convey the grace, beauty and quality of the sharks,” said Lauri Halderman, the museum’s vice-president for the exhibition. “And remove the fear factor,” he added, “and we play with the fear factor a bit.”

They certainly are. One of the first objects in the gallery of the exhibition, which has the dark, mysterious feel of an underwater cave, is a model of the giant upper part of a cave. megalodon, an ancient shark often called the Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas (its bite force of up to 41,000 pounds was much worse). This massive predator, about 50 feet long, went extinct about 3.6 million years ago—except for Hollywood resurrecting it for 2018’s cheap thriller.meg”

With its open mouths, the megalodon of the exhibition serves as a kind of smiling greeting for family reunion, not only of sharks, but also of their close relatives (skate, chimera and stingray). All of these species, with their distinctive skeletons of cartilage covered with rock-hard tiles—a combination more flexible than bone—evolved long before the doomed dinosaurs, 450 million years ago.

“We wanted to present the evolution of sharks because no one had really done it very extensively,” said John Sparks, curator of the ichthyology department, the museum’s branch of zoology that studies fish. Based on the work of John Maisey, an honorary curator at the museum, “Sharks” traces this lineage with fossils. helicopyrionAn extinct prehistoric species whose buzzsaw-like teeth are curiously arranged in a spiral. (On Saturday at 10:00 the museum “The Scientist Is Inside: Ancient Sharks”, a free virtual family program that studies these ancestors.)

“Sharks” also has more than 25 detailed models. dwarf lantern shark, smaller than a human hand, 65 feet long whale sharkcreepy-looking but only eats small creatures like plankton and krill.

“How did the sharks survive all these extinctions?” said Sparks, who curated the show. “Well, it’s probably because of this diversity you see here.”

That means different abilities to compete with a team of Marvel superheroes. greenland sharkIt contains a chemical that can live for over 500 years, acting like antifreeze. This inflatable sharka fluorescent species has areas of skin that glow green in sunlight. A robber shark It can kill its prey with a blow of 80 miles per hour from its tail. And all genres have one trait that sounds like something out of a Harry Potter novel: Lorenzini’s ampullae, receptors that respond to the electric fields produced by all animals.

“They can detect very weak electrical signals that help them find buried prey,” Sparks said.

“Sharks” explores these features through both interactive and completely contactless digital exhibits in response to Covid-19. Waving on the sensors, the technological equivalent of Lorenzini’s ampullae, you can play games like matching different sharks to their habitats or matching land animals to shark species that use the same defensive tactics.

You’ll also find cinematic gems. Discovery’s “Shark Week” there are many clips of extraordinary shark behavior in the exhibit. I watched a goblin shark He suddenly thrust his jaw out at 10 feet per second like a slingshot to catch his prey, and swirling sharks Perform a lethal ballet: As they enter a school of smaller fish, they spin at top speed, biting constantly as they spin.

The exhibit also allows visitors to pretend to be a shark. An interactive one with child charm allows you to adopt a child’s point of view. hammer head while hunting at the bottom of the ocean. At two stations, you can look at the screen to see your own head replaced by one of the show’s genres. (I’ve become a hardworking-looking threshing shark with my notebook.)

“It’s pointless, it’s fun,” Halderman said of these shows. “On the other hand, trying to empathize is just interesting.”

And why do sharks need our empathy? Because reading this they are largely helpless against much more ruthless predators. human actions such as overfishing, habitat destruction, and shrimp troll – an unsustainable practice that unwittingly catches many other sea creatures – killing over 100 million sharks every year. (About a third of all species are now endangered.) By contrast, sharks kill about 10 people a year.

“Even if you’re around great whites and these sharks (tiger sharks, ocean whitefins) that occasionally attack humans, they won’t bother you 99.9 percent of the time,” Sparks said. On several occasions he was “nipped” by small reef sharks for carrying samples of fish with him, but he said cheerfully, “I don’t hold out against them at all.”

The exhibit recommends letting the sleeping sharks lie down while in the water. And if someone acts aggressively, try to maintain eye contact. (They prefer stealth attacks.) Blows to the nose and eyes can also deter them.

However, much more useful, the show’s shark protection. Regulating fishing practices, banning shark fins for soup, establishing shark shelters and promoting responsible ecotourism can help restore their numbers.

“This is an incredible group of organisms that has been around for a long time, and losing them would be just devastating,” Sparks said. Said.

It also hurt people. As apex predators, sharks play a very important role in marine ecosystems. If they die, their plant-eating prey multiplies. Decreased vegetation leads to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, accelerating climate change. The decline in shark populations is also limiting the search for these species, whose properties have been adapted to develop better boats and high-performance swimsuits. Therefore, although sharks may not look as cute as giant pandas, the organizers of the exhibition want us to value them equally.

As Halderman points out, “If people leave thinking, ‘Oh, wow, sharks are dangerous,’ and they leave saying, ‘Oh, wow, sharks are in danger,’ I think we’ve all done a good job. ”

Sharks

through August 14, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West, Manhattan; 212-769-5100, amnh.org. Timed tickets are required along with proof of vaccination. (Children aged 5-11 years must show evidence of at least one dose of vaccine.)