Shape of Life

From TideLines, Winter 2001
FROM THE DIRECTOR

Several months ago, Cabrillo Marine Aquarium was invited to join eleven other U.S. aquariums and science centers as members of The Shape of Life Education Outreach Consortium, organized to provide outreach to schools and the community for a new television series entitled "The Shape of Life." Our consortium partners include the Monterey Bay Aquarium, National Aquarium in Baltimore, New England Aquarium, John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Waikiki Aquarium, the Audubon Institute in New Orleans, the Seattle Aquarium, Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa.
Debuting on PBS in Spring 2002, this exciting co-production of Sea Studios Foundation and National Geographic Television is an eight-part series that reconstructs the dramatic rise of the animal kingdom. It reveals the astonishing breakthroughs in form and function made by major groups of invertebrates during the course of evolution. It offers groundbreaking science, breathtaking natural history cinematography, and state-of-the-art animation. In the series, exciting scientists take the audience along on their research expeditions and explain their passion for science.
CMA's role will be to showcase our local living southern California representatives from the series--sea stars, jellies, sea snails, octopus, crabs, and lobsters, and more--through FRIENDS member events, educator workshops for teachers from greater Los Angeles, and other activities. I had the pleasure of treating Cabrillo's fall docent training class to preview excerpts from the programs. We all marveled at the complex and lively behavior of sea anemones and sea stars in time lapse sequences, an octopus squeezing its entire body through an improbably small bottle opening, and Star Wars-like voyages into the interior of a sea star's strange and wonderful anatomy. In addition to breathtaking photography, the series shows that there are many ways to be successful on this earth besides being a human being or even a vertebrate, and that seemingly lowly creatures have incredible impacts and importance in the world.
Watch for the series debut spring 2002 on PBS (KCET-LA airtimes for the first 6 parts are April 2, 9 and 16th at 9pm.), and join us for live experiences with some of the exciting cast members!
--Susanne Lawrenz-Miller, Ph.D.

Click to view a "phylogenetic tree" showing the relationships of major invertebrate groups. (1.3MB)