Six extinctions – Te Manawa Museum

Come face-to-face with some of the top predators of the past and learn about the the Earth's mass extinction events in the exhibition Six Extinctions, produced by Gondwana Studios.

Travel back 485 million years to a time when complex life lived only in the sea and the first plants appeared on land.

Meet the top predators from each geological period including Dunkleosteus, a giant armoured fish that terrorised the seas, Inostrancevia, a tiger-sized sabre-toothed beast, Postosuchus, a giant carnivorous reptile and a life-sized cast of the largest Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered.

From there explore the five mass extinction events in the Earth’s history, and the sixth and current extinction crisis – climate change – which is the first caused by a single species, humans.

Although not all previous mass extinctions are fully understood the exhibition looks at the available evidence, shows how climate has changed in the past and the effect it had on life. It also explains what caused the extinctions, what became extinct and how these events shaped the world as we know it.

Location: Te Manawa Museum, 326 Main Street, Palmerston North

For more information: www.temanawa.co.nz/museum/exhibitions/