The exhibition, “Mythic Creatures” opens at The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City on Saturday, May 26, 2007.

Two good articles on the exhibition and the opening are (click on the title of each article for the link):

“The Surprising Realities of Mythical Creatures,” LiveScience;

“Exploring the Nature of the Unnatural,” New York Times.

On some level, I was surprised to see Richard Ellis is a co-curator of the exhibition, while on another, I wasn’t. Richard has painted and illustrated various museums and books with some outstanding images of marine life, has a deep interest in the Kraken (giant squid), and has authored a book on Sea Monsters (which I have noted is rather more open-minded than Ellis’ heavily edited documentary television appearances makes him out to be).

The media has tended to use Ellis as the ultimate skeptic or debunker, but, indeed, he has written of the mystery of the “Great Sea Serpent” and how Steller’s Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is the “skeleton in the closet” of cryptozoology. I look forward to seeing what the AMNH and Richard Ellis have done with cryptozoology in this exhibition.

Of course, the use of “mythic” versus “legendary” or “folkloric,” perhaps, already gives us some clues about how the general public might experience it.

I will be delivering a presentation, “Introduction to Cryptozoology,” in conjuntion with this exhibition, on December 1, 2007, at the AMNH.

See you there.