Océan exhibition at Paris National Museum of Natural History, last days

Océans,is the beautiful exhibition of the Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle [National Museum of National History] running at the Evolution Gallery in Paris from April 3, 2019 to January 5, 2020. This exhibition offers a surprising journey to the heart of an uncommon universe and promises to go even further than the only familiar faces of threatened sharks, whales and corals.

Last days to enjoy the exhibition at the Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle devoted to Oceans and especially the uncommon biodiversities we can find there, far from the shore and the human presence. Hurry up, it ends on January 5, 2020!

Perfect for children and adults, the exhibition tells us everything about how important oceans are for the life on Earth: thanks to a beautiful and immersive staging, we find skeletons of sea mammals, as well as many interactive devices allowing us to understand more about life within the ocean.

If we know that oceans represent 71% of the surface of the planet and 1,370 million km², we still lack lots of knowledge about how it works. We keep in mind the large mammals or the fantastic creatures from our childhood (Kraken, leviathan, Charybdis and Cthulhu, mythic and fascinating creatures)!

Far from all these horror stories, the unknown ocean is in full transformation and because of the human activity. Did you know that plankton, the group of organism invisible to the naked eyes, produces over 50% of the oxygen we breathe? Yes, but searchers showed that plankton is in danger because of the increase of the ingestion of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Oceans are yet a gold mine for human health: it houses a large number of fascinating organism and active molecules with properties studied on a daily basis. Thanks to the Ifremer Nautile submarine, men can go down to 6000m deep to observe and analyze seabeds ecosystems.

A focus will be completed on the biodiversity in extreme environments, from deep seabeds to the frozen waters of the Astral oceans! If we though they were desert, they actually house original life forms suited to the dark, cold… Let’s take for example the dragonfish, (idiacanthus atlanticus) that lives in a deep sea, between -2000m and -2800m. It produces its own light thanks to its light sourcing organs!

Legendary creature, the giant squid that has fascinated the whole world for centuries. The first cadaver has been noticed in 1545 in Scandinavia, it's only in 2004 that searchers from Japan's National Museum of Natural History meet giant squids and they're the first to take the first pictures of the Architeuthis dux in the ocean. The Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle owns of the the race stuffed specimens, a squid fished in 2000 off the coast of New Zealand.

Even stranger, the Coelacanth case, the species found 80 years ago while it was said to have disapeared for 70 million years. Named the first time in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, the coelacanth is described as a "living fossil" that disappeared at the same time as dinosaurs.

This exhibition is the occasion for meetings, screenings and activities to raise awareness about oceans.

Please note that it's been over 4 years since our last visit, so the place and experience may have changed.