Trace the natural and cultural roots of some of the world's most enduring mythological creatures from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond!
About
Stories of mythical beings have been with us for thousands of years. These legends, which were sometimes inspired by fossils or living animals, continue to inspire us today. Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, traces the natural and cultural roots of some of the world's most enduring creatures of myth. Mythic Creatures features unique cultural objects that highlight the surprising similarities and differences in the ways people around the world have envisioned and depicted mythic creatures. Organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Mythic Creatures includes imaginative models and cast fossils of prehistoric animals to investigate how they could have - through misidentification, speculation, fear or imagination - inspired the development of some legendary creatures.
Featured in this Exhibition
This alluring exhibition features:
- A 120-foot-long Chinese parade dragon, used in New York City's Chinatown to perform the traditional dragon dance at the Lunar New Year
- A replica "Feejee mermaid," of the type made famous by showman P. T. Barnum, created by sewing the head and torso of a monkey to the tail of a fish
- A 17-foot-long dragon with a wingspan of over 19 feet
- A 10-foot-long European unicorn
- An 11-foot-long Roc with large, sharp talons swooping above the heads of visitors with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet
- A dramatic model of a kraken, whose 12-foot-long tentacles appear to rise out of the floor of the exhibition as if surfacing from the sea
- An over-6-foot-tall, extinct primate called Gigantopithecus
- The largest bird ever to have lived, the over-9-foot-tall, extinct Aepyornis
- Paintings and textiles, along with cultural objects from around the world that bring to light surprising similarities and differences in the ways people have been inspired by nature to envision and depict these strange and wonderful creatures
Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids opens at COSI February 7, 2026 and is included with general admission to the museum.
Trace the natural and cultural roots of some of the world's most enduring mythological creatures from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and beyond!
About
Stories of mythical beings have been with us for thousands of years. These legends, which were sometimes inspired by fossils or living animals, continue to inspire us today. Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, traces the natural and cultural roots of some of the world's most enduring creatures of myth. Mythic Creatures features unique cultural objects that highlight the surprising similarities and differences in the ways people around the world have envisioned and depicted mythic creatures. Organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Mythic Creatures includes imaginative models and cast fossils of prehistoric animals to investigate how they could have - through misidentification, speculation, fear or imagination - inspired the development of some legendary creatures.
Featured in this Exhibition
This alluring exhibition features:
- A 120-foot-long Chinese parade dragon, used in New York City's Chinatown to perform the traditional dragon dance at the Lunar New Year
- A replica "Feejee mermaid," of the type made famous by showman P. T. Barnum, created by sewing the head and torso of a monkey to the tail of a fish
- A 17-foot-long dragon with a wingspan of over 19 feet
- A 10-foot-long European unicorn
- An 11-foot-long Roc with large, sharp talons swooping above the heads of visitors with a wingspan of nearly 20 feet
- A dramatic model of a kraken, whose 12-foot-long tentacles appear to rise out of the floor of the exhibition as if surfacing from the sea
- An over-6-foot-tall, extinct primate called Gigantopithecus
- The largest bird ever to have lived, the over-9-foot-tall, extinct Aepyornis
- Paintings and textiles, along with cultural objects from around the world that bring to light surprising similarities and differences in the ways people have been inspired by nature to envision and depict these strange and wonderful creatures
Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids opens at COSI February 7, 2026 and is included with general admission to the museum.
Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York (amnh.org}, in collaboration with The Field Museum, Chicago; Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau; Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney; and Fernbank Museum of Natural History, Atlanta.