2024-10-17 10:00:00
When, at the Natural History Museum of Toulouse, the visitor descends into the room where the exhibition “The Giants” has just been inaugurated, the steps along which he travels overlook the open jaws of a megalodon, an extinct shark next to which is the great white the shark almost seems like a beautiful fish. The color is announced: welcome to excess, among these species which, after the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, which occurred 66 million years ago, occupied their homes, their comforts and above all the volume in ecological niches that had become vacant. This megafauna has also disappeared, but paleontology, through the extraction and study of fossils, allows it to be given substance again.
The aim of this exhibition, originally designed by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, is to display these animals in life size. Some occur in the classic form of the reconstructed skeleton, such as the saber-toothed feline, the Megatherium American – a giant 4-ton sloth that looks like a bear – or even the Gastornis Lawrencea 1.70 meter tall bird with a large beak, which plays the role of regional stage because it was discovered in the Aude in 2018.
But the strongest guests take on a bolder, even more aesthetic form, as they are reduced to silhouettes, a sort of colossal origami with white facets cut out of… insulating panels. The set design plays wonderfully with these imposing bodies, both using them as labels or screens, and removing some panels to see, through the transparency, the great bones of the beast.
“Giant with feet of clay”
We therefore circulate among the Titanoboa – terrifying 15 meter snake that would have swallowed you upright if you had lived 60 million years ago -, the baluchitère – the most massive of the land mammals, with its 17 tons – and, of course, the unmissable mammoth. We also report Gigantopithecus blackithe largest known ape, extinct about 300,000 years ago, imposing with its 3.70 meters of height and its 200-400 kilos.
The causes of gigantism are different: better protection from the cold, defense from predators, competitive advantage during the mating season… But the exhibition highlights the aspect of the “giant with feet of clay”. Large size has its advantages but also its disadvantages. “The Cope-Depéret rule states that “the more a species grows, the closer it is to extinction, because the more sensitive it will be to environmental changes””explains Francis Duranthon, director of the Toulouse Museum.
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