When we think of historic creatures, larger-than-life animals like dinosaurs, wooly mammoths or saber-tooth tigers typically come to mind. At the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, a new special exhibit takes us back even further—to the Permian Period.
“Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs” takes visitors on a journey back in time. Visual aids like artist renderings, fossil models and true-to-size animatronics help immerse visitors in this fascinating historic period—and keep the exhibit engaging for all ages.
@delawaretodaymagazine We stopped by @DelawareMuseum Nature&Science to check out the Permian Monsters exhibit! Visit before May 11 to see it for yourself, and find the feature this afternoon on delawaretodaymagazine.com, link in bio! #delaware #fyp #thingstodo
“I like to say we travel back in time here, but also in space,” explains Discovery Gallery and Exhibits Manager Robbie Mueller. The creatures and ecosystems explored in the exhibit existed 300 million years ago on Pangea—Earth’s supercontinent that was made up of the land masses we’re familiar with today before they shifted apart.
The exhibit begins with a visual explanation of Pangea, along with a geologic timescale. Starting the exhibit this way helps visitors visualize just how far back in time the Permian Period truly was.
Mueller explains the timeline at a scale easy to understand: if you think about it in terms of a calendar year, and the Permian Period is January 1, human beings wouldn’t come into the picture until December 31, less than a second before midnight. The message is, essentially, we haven’t been here long.
The exhibit includes something for everyone, starting with the creatures of the Permian Sea—including a strange ancestor of today’s sharks. You’ll see the journey of organisms moving from the ocean to the land, where eventually species resembling reptiles evolved. Museum-goers can explore a wide variety of Permian monsters and learn about their predator-prey relationships, ecosystems and how they adapted to the world around them over time.
Stories of the Permian Period
“There are so many stories to tell throughout the exhibit,” Mueller says. One of his favorites answers an age-old question: Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
The “Permian Monsters” exhibit explores the importance of the egg as an evolutionary tool. Once species were able to lay eggs, they could reproduce on land, making life away from the sea possible. In fact, the egg is one of the first steps that made way for life as we know and understand it today.
Museum-goers also learn the story of the Permian-Triassic Extinction, or “The Great Dying,” during which 80% of marine life and 70% of all life on land went extinct. After The Great Dying, the exhibit also includes the story of a burrowing species that was able to survive the extinction event, but later died out due to the evolution of new predators.
“I really like to focus on this part of the tour,” Mueller says of The Great Dying section of the exhibit. “It’s extremely relevant.”
According to Mueller, the extinction event occurred due, in part, to the eruption of super-volcanoes. Volcanic ash filled the sky, blocking out the sun. At the same time, increased carbon dioxide levels led to severe global warming, melting frozen methane deposits beneath the ocean floor. As the methane rose from the ocean, temperatures rose further, impacting the ecosystems in irreversible—and devastating—ways.
If these phenomena all sound familiar, it’s because they’re many of the same concerns experts are raising today. Due to human activity, the Earth is warming at a far higher rate than it did leading up to The Great Dying. For Mueller, the overarching story of “Permian Monsters” is a parallel to the potential tragedy that could repeat itself in our own future.
While Mueller’s tour focuses a lot on ecosystems and climate, he emphasizes that the tour can change each time depending on who’s guiding it and the questions visitors ask.
“Every time we give a tour, it’s a little different,” he says. “We all have our own areas of expertise and parts we like to focus on.”
Visiting the Museum
Sponsored by Bank of America, the “Permian Monsters” exhibit will run throughout the winter until May 11. To learn more about the Permian Period and the monsters that roamed the earth, visit the museum to explore on your own or take a guided tour.
4840 Kennett Pike, Wilmington | 658-9111
10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Thursday-Tuesday
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