On exhibition now through January at the American Museum of Natural History is fantastic sounding exhibit: EXTREME MAMMALS !  Looks like the webdesigners had some fun putting the exhibit site together — there’s no holding back on the sensationalism of the crazy creatures on view.

As the museum itself claims:

“Featuring spectacular fossils and other specimens from the Museum’s collections, vivid reconstructions, and live animals, the exhibition examines the ancestry and evolution of numerous species, ranging from huge to tiny, from speedy to sloth-like, and displays animals with oversized claws, fangs, snouts, and horns.”

It also boasts multimedia use, hands on displays, and live sugar gliders.  AND, there’s even mention of the science tabloids latest headlines, Darwinius masillae, or Ida: definitely not a missing link but still a wonderfully preserved primitive mammal specimin.

Check out the Chinese pangolin echidna below.

Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), © AMNH/D. Finnin

More images, discussions, reviews, etc. below:

Exhibition Site

Born Animal Discovery News blog

New York Times review

Wired article

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A couple things happening in New York of late:

A talk is happening at the Observatory 7:30pm in Brooklyn by medical illustrator Marie Dauenheimer, titled “Italian Wax Anatomical Models in European Collections”.  Sounds like just the kind of thing anyone weird enough to appreciate the art and dissections would appreciate!  More information over at the Morbid Anatomy site.  Also see the post about the Italian tour; some of its photos put current anatomy models to shame.

Also of interest: the Pelham Art Center in Pelham, NY is hosting “And for all this, nature is never spent”.  Including a collection of work by both students and professionals, it’s goal is to increase public awareness of the state of the environment.  As a perk, it looks tastefully done, includes some truly lovely works, and isn’t all about shoving a message down your throat.

Here’s the the larger context the title is taken from:

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; Bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

–Gerard Manley Hopkins

[via New York Times article]

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As an quick addendum to the previous post, The New York Times has a great little slideshow of images from the Darwin Endless Forms exhibition.

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At the Yale Center for British Art until May 3 and at the Fitzwilliam Museum from June through October is the “Darwin Endless Forms” exhibit. If I was anywhere geographically near these areas, I would go.  Essentially, it looks at all the art produced as a response to Darwin’s ideas in the late 19th century, and looks like it provides some interesting insights into both public and aesthetic interpretations of the evolution concept.

More links:

Yale Center for British Art,  Fitzwilliam Museum

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Chicago’s International Museum of Surgical Science is calling for exhibition proposals for the 2010 year – the deadline is April 19!  They are looking for medically related art (more than figure studies with anatomy), 10-15 in number.

It looks like they prefer highly conceptual pieces more than the stereotypical medical illustration work, but this is nevertheless a unique opportunity.

Currently, the following is showing from January 30 – April 17, 2009:

Dominic Paul Moore, “Put This in Your Mouth”
Laurel Roth, “Hope Chest”

Details about the exhibitions in general: Anatomy in the Gallery

Details about submitting proposals: Exhibition Opportunities at the IMSS

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