As I am sure you know by now, the National Shell Museum & Aquarium recently opened Phase 1 of its renovated Great Hall of Shells. It was great to work with the Museum and the design teams and prepare the content and select the shells for all the exhibits. One of the displays that was most gratifying to conceive and organize was the section of the Global Distribution exhibit where we discuss the relationships of eastern Pacific mollusks to their tropical western Atlantic (mainly Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean) counterparts. There are many possible “species-pairs,” one member of the pair from the Pacific, another from the Atlantic. These “pairs” originated from common ancestors that thrived prior to the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. The Isthmus was formed as a result of the movement of tectonic plates, the large pieces of the earth’s crust that move inexorably, creating and obliterating oceans and land masses.
Before the Isthmus existed, the marine fauna and flora occupied an area of the ocean called the Central American Seaway. A single species could live in an area spanning what is now the eastern Pacific and the tropical western Atlantic. With the beginning of the formation of the Isthmus of Panama, the eastern and western populations of these species started to isolate. The different environments developing to the west (colder water) and to the east (warmer water) of the Isthmus drove the evolution of different pairs of “daughter” species (also known as cognate species), which are supposedly more closely related to each other than to any other species.
Excerpt from the final layout graphics for the new Great Hall of Shells exhibits showing the “Isthmian Pairs” section of the “Global Distribution” exhibit ©2024 Matter Architecture Practice
The stylish exhibit, designed by Matter Architecture of Brooklyn, New York, is presented in an intriguing, crescent-shaped case, introducing 26 pairs of cognate species, with the western Atlantic member of a pair displayed above a dotted line and its eastern Pacific counterpart exhibited below the line. Come explore the Global Distribution display and other exhibits in our new Great Hall of Shells!
