Photo: California Academy of Sciences
“Nothing in life is more important than sex.” So says Steinhart Aquarium Director Bart Shepherd, and I’m inclined to agree. Shepherd recently announced the opening of a new exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences about sex, mating, and evolution.
This first new gallery since the new Steinhart Aquarium opened in 2008 is also the first public aquarium to use iPads as exhibit labels, allowing visitors to flip through gorgeous images, watch videos of reproductive behaviors in action, and guide their own digital explorations using interactive touch screens throughout the exhibit.
The family-friendly exhibit manages to present hermaphroditism, sexual cannibalism, multi-organism mating chains, cloning, cradle-snatching, and other seemingly unusual sexual behaviors as just what they are—highly evolved natural behaviors that serve Mother Nature’s purposes quite well.
