Water

Here we have views of the central space in the Museum of Nature, in between galleries, both looking up and down. Natural light spills in from overhead and from the adjoining Queens' Lantern.

High overhead, the inflated ornament in the Lantern is called La Meduse, modeled specifically after a species of jellyfish that glows in the dark, pelagia noctiluca.

The Water Gallery is the next stop. A wall of displays blocks a direct view from outside the gallery, so much the better, because once you walk around it, you're met all at once with the centrepiece of this exhibit area- the skeleton of a blue whale.

Various whale types are in this particular display case.

This installation depicts the kind of life you find around deep sea vents, where hot mineralized waters flow up out of cracks. Specialized organisms tend to congregate here and live off of the minerals being emitted into the water, or other creatures drawn to the spots.

Other sea life shows up in display cases in the form of models.

Water applies not just to the sea, but to fresh water as well, and it's not just life in that water, but creatures who make use of it- the raccoon, a land dweller, nonetheless often finds its food in creeks, streams, and ponds.

Coming back out, I stopped by three scale models. An average sized human is placed beside each creature of the deep for comparison- the whale shark, the colossal squid, and the blue whale. 

Today I leave off with a view looking up in the central atrium towards the Queens' Lantern on the other side of the wall.