Children at the Kelly Tarltons Jurassic Sea exhibition. Photo / Aimee Dykstra
Children at the Kelly Tarltons Jurassic Sea exhibition. Photo / Aimee Dykstra
Get up close - and inside - prehistoric creatures and their kin, says Sarah Ell.
You wouldn't have wanted to go swimming off the New Zealand coast in Jurassic times, if the new exhibit at Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium is anything to go by.
New Zealand has a relatively poor fossil record for land-based dinosaurs, but archaeologists have discovered the seas around the shores of the emerging land mass were full of things with spikes, teeth and bad attitudes. These creatures - and some of the more benign ones - have been brought to life at Kelly Tarlton's as computer animations and live-animal displays of descendants of the creatures that swam in our seas millions of years ago.
The children and I are shown the display by the aquarium's education officer, Bonnie Hartfield.
She says the animals represent species that would have lived on or around the land mass which became New Zealand during the Jurassic Period, and have survived through millions of years virtually unchanged. Green bell frogs, koura and spiny sea urchins are familiar.
The kids crawl through a tunnel that pops them up in a tank of carpet sharks.
These peaceful creatures - they apparently bark when annoyed - are sharing their space with some prehistoric-looking sea tulips, which Bonnie tells us are not a plant but a type of sea squirt.
Three-year-old Natalie is interested in the live green bell frogs and tadpoles while 5-year-old Florian is drawn to the exhibit's large screens.
Impressive animations bring back to life several bitey creatures, now - thankfully - extinct. There's the megalodon, a mighty prehistoric shark that makes Jaws look like a pussycat, and two marine reptiles - a Loch Ness monster-type plesiosaur and a liopleurodon, a more stocky relative with an impressive mouthful of fangs. Detailed 3D animations allow visitors to "get inside" the animals, peeling back skin to see the muscles and skeletons beneath.
The Kelly Tarlton's Jurassic Sea exhibition. Photo / Aimee Dykstra
Florian loves playing the interactive games, examining the megalodon's huge teeth, "feeding" the dinosaurs and jumping back in alarm when the digital megalodon looks like it's going to burst out of the screen and have him for lunch.
Natalie and I get up close to the king crabs - the spiky, freaky-looking stars of the TV show Deadliest Catch. Hartfield tells us these aggressive crustaceans are moving into Antarctic waters, as the sea temperature warms, and may have devastating effects on the sea life.
The conservation message is an important part of the exhibit. Information panels show how some ancient species are now threatened by man and climate change.
Just beyond the new display is the Shipwreck Shores playground, the cafe and some more freaks of evolution, the nozzle-snouted elephant sharks.
Jurassic Seas will make an interesting addition to the Kelly Tarlton's experience this summer, being entertaining and educational.
I'm just glad we can now go to the beach without having to worry about being snaffled up by a liopleurodon.
Need to know
Kelly Tarlton's, open daily, 9.30am-4pm. Child $17, adult $31, family $55 (book online for 10 per cent discount). Celebrate the launch of the Jurassic Seas with an ancient fossil dig at Mission Bay, with heaps of cool prizes to be won. Today, 10am-3pm (check the weather first). kellytarltons.co.nz
