The Big & The Toothy

One step into the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County yields a view of the "dueling dinosaurs," the skeletons of a Triceratops and a Tyrannosaurus posed in battle.  Should you wander into the main lobby of the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian, you will see a large African elephant.  What might you see when you visit the Field Museum in Chicago?  Why, a Tyrannosaurus and an elephant, of course.

Dueling Dinosaurs, Natural History Museum of LA County

African elephant on "center stage" at the Smithsonian.

It is not terribly surprising.  When the ceiling of the entrance lobby is 40 feet from the floor, a sea star on a pedestal is not quite a feast for the eyes.  An 18-foot by 38-foot lizard certainly does the trick.

The purpose of these institutions is to inspire wonder about the natural world and to educate the public about natural history.  Like any business, they also want to get people in the door, and dinosaurs do just that.  Recent expansions of the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum of LA County could have been designed with an emphasis on just about any aspect of our natural world and its change through time.  Still, each of these institutions put dollars and focus exactly where one might expect: dinosaur halls.

What do I have against dinosaurs (and elephants)?  Nothing.  They are fascinating animals.  They simply do not, in my opinion, deserve such a disproportionate amount of our attention.  Is our interest in different forms of life on Earth directly related to size?

Kids know only what we show them.

We recognize about 350 species of dinosaurs today, though many more likely roamed the Earth over time.  We cannot argue that they were not important; after all, their demise brought opportunity to our early mammalian ancestors, the ability to radiate and diversify.  The thought is that we (humans) might not be here otherwise.  Nevertheless, 350 species is taxonomic peanuts.  Scientists estimate that there are roughly 80,000 species of snails on the planet. Let's compare.  350.  80,000.  350.  80,000.  There are approximately 60,000 species of spiders.  We have recorded another 60,000 species of crustaceans.  The list continues.

Of course, we show bias toward other organisms as well.  What of Flipper?  Dolphins exhibit incredible behaviors and learning ability.  It helps that they are not only represented by fossil relics and that we can witness their behaviors firsthand, even swim with them for a penny or two.  I will admit there are some marvelous forms, such as  river dolphins, but the diversity of living species in this group is not impressive. All told, whales, dolphins and porpoises represent about 80 species.

The cookiecutter shark.  Read how they got their name!

Aside from pets, another group comes to mind: sharks.  Even within this group, we are biased, most of the attention going to the "man-eaters."   How many sharks can you name? Ten?  There are nearly 400 valid species of sharks, and I will admit that many of them are quite interesting.  Favorites include the cookiecutter shark (Isistius brasiliensis) and the wobbegong sharks (family Orectolobidae). For most people, however, it is probably the picture of a single species that the word "shark" conjures, the great white.

A wobbegong shark, cryptic against coral.

It makes you wonder: What else is out there?  Well, of more than 30 phyla (major groups) of animals on Earth, all of the vertebrate organisms, those with a backbone, fit neatly into one subphylum (Vertebrata).  All of the fishes.  All of the frogs, toads, newts and salamanders.  All of the snakes, lizards, turtles and tortoises.  All of the birds.  All of the mammals, from shrews to bats to primates to lions, tigers and bears (oh my!).

Collectively, the vertebrate animals represent about 5% of the animal species described to date.
Most people rarely consider the other 95% of animal life on the planet.  These other species often occur in great abundance, serving as critical links in food webs.  Some of them build ornate structures and exhibit unusual behaviors.  Many of them occur in most unusual habitats.  The majority of invertebrate species are harmless, but some cause disease.  A few of them are just as deadly as the toothy vertebrates described above.

We can examine some of these life forms here, not so much as an attempt to convince you that they belong in a museum lobby as to give you a slightly broader window on biology and to suggest that some lesser known forms are worthy of notice.

In each upcoming post, I will steer you away from the large, vertebrate animals in order to highlight some of the spineless wonders that might otherwise remain unknown to you.