For Media

Exploring similarities and evolutionary adaptations.

A stylised model of the barge boards (maihi) from Whitireia meeting house in Whangara, New Zealand. The central carved figure (tekoteko) is Paikea, the famous whale-riding ancestor of the local tribe.

A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).

Visitors touch a real rib bone and vertebra from a fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus).

A 1773 portrait of a richly dressed Māori man wearing a rei puta pendant made of whale bone or tooth.

Whale skulls are used to show how different feeding strategies correspond with cranial adaptations.

Learning about whale anatomy.

An ornamental comb (heru) made of whale bone, from 1800–1900, maker unknown.

Fossil casts show the evolutionary and ancestral lineage of whales.

More than just specimens: It's not only the impressive size (17.8 m and 9.8 m) of these sperm-whale (Physeter catodon) skeletons that make them the centrepiece of the exhibition. The general significance of whales in Maori culture is reflected in the exhibition, but some New Zealand Māori tribes have relationships with these particular skeletons.

When dolphins leap from the water like this, it's called "porpoising".

A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae).