Animals and Plants – so different yet so much in common

Darwin museum is inviting you to explore representatives of two different kingdoms – animals and plants, to meet living carnivorous plants, to enjoy wonderful illustrations from rare books of 19^th century, as well as beautiful watercolors and drawings by contemporary artists. Find out the answer to one of the nature’s biggest mysteries – why animals and plants try so hard to resemble each other.

The exhibition will reveal what Camels and Aloe, Galápagos marine iguana and Rhizophora mangle, Nelumbo and the Cuban emerald hummingbird, Chinchilla and Leontopodium have in common.

Over millions of years of evolution animals and plants have mastered the art of mimicry – the ability to change appearance in order to become invisible or to resemble another plant or animal. Many insects have reached perfection in the art of mimicry using inanimate models – twigs, bark, leaves, bird droppings or flowers. Some plants, on the contrary, resemble insects to attract animals for pollination or hunting. Can you imagine that there are over 600 species of carnivorous plants? Marine corals and sponges try so hard to convince everyone that they are plants, while in fact being animals, fixating themselves to one place with the help of hard mineral skeleton.

You will find all different forms of mimicry and their examples in paintings from Darwin museum collection, as well as in illustrations from “Art Forms in Nature” (1904) by German biologist Ernst Haeckel.

Актуальные мероприятия