Mr. Vanderbilt’s oceanic expeditions and unprecedented circumnavigations of the globe make it possible for visitors to journey around the planet without leaving Long Island.
His specimen-hunting trips to the Galápagos Islands, throughout the Pacific, Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa, the Atlantic and Caribbean, yielded thousands of specimens of marine, bird and insect life, some of them new discoveries at the time Vanderbilt found them.
I am of two minds when seeing places like this.
I love the fact that I can see these fascinating creatures and learn about them but I hate the fact that they had to be killed so I could do that.
The good thing about an exhibit like this is that it might spark a person’s interest in things they can not visit and make them want to help in securing their future by being an environmental activist.
This is a Basket Star on the bottom right.
This extraordinary invertebrate has a mass of twisting and turning arms that can measure a meter long.
Each branch has tiny sharp hooks, allowing the creature to capture prey.
It feasts mainly on zooplankton.
Basket stars are able to grow their limbs back if they are broken or chopped off by predators – an ability as freakish as it is amazing.