(Blog alleen in het Engels)

14 jan, 2023

The new "Evolution" exhibition opened at Naturalis! It took me a while to go check it out... But being an evolutionary scientist working behind the scenes of this museum, I of course had sneak away from my work place and have a peak around the corner of this new room rather sooner than later. The 'chimpanzee-banana' display brought a big smile to my face, as I have been involved in the establishment of this showcase! There is a whole, personal story behind it! I'll briefly explain how I helped out and why.

Let me start off by saying that I do not take credit for the way this exhibition was put together - on the contrary. As a scientist I am not much involved with the general activities that take place in the museum, nor with the development of new exhibitions. Besides for my presence in the LiveScience room, I do not actually work in the museum itself. There is a whole team of artists, managers, educational staff, taxidermists, science communicators, and many more people, that makes a museum come to life.

You can generally find the scientists ('biologists', like myself, but also 'archeologists', 'geologists' and other 'environmentalists') working in the collection tower, the offices, or the laboratories of Naturalis - which are all behind the scenes locations. And as Naturalis is a 'Biodiversity Center' that has been involved with all kinds of research projects and scientific studies over a long period of time, it only makes sense that exhibition designers and educational staff ask the scientists and other experts for help surrounding the contents of new displays.  [Text continues after photo]

The reason why it is important to include science, and thus the scientists and the science communicators, in the development of showcases is to make sure that whatever is being displayed in the museum is shown in a way that; 1) is scientifically correct, 2) offers some kind of educational value, and 3) can be understood by all of the museum visitors, whether they are young or old, Dutch or non-Dutch, nerdy and into science, or not at all: the scientific knowledge should be for everyone!

In one of the first 'DNA talks', videos that I make for Naturalis, I explained about the similarities between the DNA of humans, chimpanzees, bananas and fruit flies (below). This video partially inspired the exhibition designers to include a chimpanzee, as well as a banana, in the evolution room, as a way to showcase genetic relatedness among organisms. My colleagues contacted me for more information after seeing the video: we had a nice chat about how I actually studied chimpanzees before I came to Naturalis, when I still worked for Apemanagement, Wageningen University and the Jane Goodall Institute NL. And we all became super excited about the idea for this new display!
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My video may have re-introduced the common thought that chimpanzees and bananas belong together. Worldwide, apes are associated with bananas - even though bananas really do not form the main component of the diet of wild chimpanzees. This is something not everyone is aware of, so we made sure that the display - although fun and colorful to look at, and recognizable when it comes to the chimp and the banana - in some way explained that chimpanzees do not eat bananas all the time. Not even in most zoos nowadays: bananas are way too sugary for that!

All and all: the museum is one cute, educational baby-chimp display richer. This infant chimpanzee will teach the public about primatology, evolution, genetics ánd ecology for a long time to come. What is not to love about that? In addition to that: elsewhere in this new Evolution room there is an interactive screen that teaches visitors about DNA and its nucleotides. A touch-screen, little gaming set-up. Understanding how DNA changes over time is key to understanding the processes behind evolution. So the fact that DNA and genetics have obtained a special place in this latest showroom of the museum is thus a big delight!

PS: In the past I have written several blogs about chimpanzees for the Jane Goodall Institute. Those blogs will be revived and rewritten in the (near) future and posted on my own website, so in case you are interested in great apes: stay tuned!