Penguins, Past and Present
April 2, 2023 - August 11, 2024
For the gran opening of the New Bruce, we started with an exhibition on a topic near and dear to my own heart: penguins!
Penguins, Past and Present told the story of the most remarkable birds on Earth. This tale started over 60 million years ago, when the ancient ancestors of today’s penguins appeared in New Zealand. We brought the fossil record of penguins to live with skeletons, fossils and life-size reconstructions of the early “proto-penguin” Sequiwaimanu and the giant extinct extinct penguin Kairuku, which weighed over 160lbs, skillfully created by Jason Brougham.
A series of innovative dioramas featuring taxidermy from our collections and lending museums and foreground and backgrounds by our talented artist Sean Murtha illuminated the amazing lives of penguins. Species ranging from the pint-sized Little Blue Penguin to the towering King Penguin were featured in scenes depicting these fascinating birds diving to pursue their prey, building nests out of stones, and raising their chicks in frozen Antarctica.
Penguins are not just black and white, and we showcased the ways some species generate color including the golden plumes of crested penguins, which gain their hue from a unique pigment named spheniscin and the beautiful blue shades of Little Blue Penguins, which are generated when nanostructure in their feathers refract light.
A wall of penguin portraits featured the photography of Tui De Roy and a family tree of penguins based on our recent penguin genome project and phylogenetic studies of fossil species.
Visitors encountered artifacts from wars fought over penguin guano, learned the sad tale of Warham’s Crested Penguin being hunted to extinction 700 years ago, and learned how penguins are being used as models for autonomous submarines and airships. At the end of the exhibition guests can stop at “Emperor Theater” to enjoy breathtaking footage of Emperor Penguins in Antarctica.