Swimming with Sharks: A Deep Dive into Shark Biology and Behavior reveals the mysterious lives of sharks in the wild

November 3, 2022

The exhibition opens November 12 at the Harvard Museum of Natural History

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., November 3, 2022—Nearly half a billion years ago, the first ancestors of a remarkable group of fishes exploded from the ocean’s tree of life, forever transforming the world’s marine ecosystems. Equipped with lighter cartilage instead of denser bone, armed with microscopic skin teeth instead of scales, and optimized for speed and mobility in a variety of habitats, sharks are an evolutionary success story pivotal for maintaining the health of our blue planet. Yet, as humanity increasingly encroaches on their ocean domain, we have largely maligned them as vicious killers. Because of us, at least twenty-five percent of all the four-hundred ninety-four sharks and rays inhabiting our coastlines are threatened with extinction.

Swimming with Sharks: A Deep Dive into Shark Biology and Behavior transports visitors into the world of these magnificent creatures to discover why the most massive sharks prey on some of the ocean’s smallest critters. Stunning photographs from renowned, local underwater wildlife photographer Keith Ellenbogen evoke a sense of wonder, from the toothy white shark to the weird wobbegong.

The exhibit also explores how sharks are inspiring new cutting-edge designs. George Lauder, curator of ichthyology, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, studies how the sharks swim, focusing on the physiological features that help them move through the water. He says, “Shark biology provides nearly endless inspiration for the design of improved aquatic propulsion systems. By studying how sharks swim and how anatomical features such as their remarkable skin denticles function, we will be able to manufacture new types of underwater devices that move and maneuver more effectively.”

Visitors will learn how to decipher dietary clues from a diversity of jaws preserved in Harvard’s world class collections and come to appreciate sharks not as deadly killers, but vulnerable creatures that play an outsize role in maintaining balance in marine ecosystems.

Listen to our latest podcast interview with Keith Ellenbogen.

Thank you to the contributors from the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, the Harvard Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, and more.

This exhibition was made possible by the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture with generous financial support from Jonathan Goldstein, MBA ‘90, and Kaia, Annika, and Skylar Goldstein in honor of Professor James J. McCarthy and Sue McCarthy.

About the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture

The HMSC mission is to foster curiosity and a spirit of discovery in visitors of all ages by enhancing public understanding of and appreciation for the natural world, science, and human cultures. HMSC works in concert with Harvard faculty, museum curators, and students, as well as with members of the extended Harvard community, to provide interdisciplinary exhibitions, events and lectures, and educational programs for students, teachers, and the public. HMSC draws primarily upon the extensive collections of the member museums and the research of their faculty and curators.

View the calendar of events, sign up for our HMSC Connects! newsletter, and learn more about becoming a member.

History

The Harvard Museums of Science & Culture (HMSC) partnership was established on July 1, 2012, by former Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Michael D. Smith, to develop a strong, coordinated public face for the six research museums that are within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard:

See hours and admission rates on each of the museum websites:

 

Press Contact:
Bethany Carland-Adams
Public Relations Specialist
Harvard Museums of Science & Culture
617-959-3481
See also: Press Release