ÎÞÂëרÇø

The story of prehistoric ocean life that emerged in the South Atlantic Ocean between the Americas and Africa 72 to 87 million years ago is explored in a new traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian. Created by the National Museum of Natural History and the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man (ISEM) at ÎÞÂëרÇø, the exhibit was organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and opened on Sept. 27 at Turtle Bay Museum in Redding, Calif. It will remain on view through Jan. 11, 2026, before continuing on a national tour through 2028.

“Sea Monsters Unearthed” showcases fossils from the earliest invasion of the South Atlantic by marine lizards and sea turtles, as well as an extraordinary excavation site in Angola that fills in a missing chapter in Earth’s history. The exhibition features a full skeleton of a 23-foot mosasaur and other mosasaur species. Photomurals and video vignettes will transport visitors to field sites along Angola’s modern rugged coast, where scientists unearthed the fossil remains from this lost world. 

An international group of scientists, including Angolan, American, Portuguese and Dutch researchers excavated these fossils, which were then prepared for the exhibition by a team of scientists and students at ÎÞÂëרÇø. These fossils give a new perspective on this ancient world, providing fresh evidence to understand how Earth has changed over time.

Beginning in 2010, the ancient remains were shipped to ÎÞÂëרÇø’S Shuler Museum of Paleontology lab. Over the years, more than 100 undergraduate students painstakingly cleaned and preserved the fossils, and three ÎÞÂëרÇø students have earned their Ph.D. degrees based on Projecto PaleoAngola research.

ÎÞÂëרÇø paleontologists Louis L. Jacobs and Michael J. Polcyn, with ÎÞÂëרÇø students and volunteers, assembled the fossils when the exhibit debuted at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. 

The “Sea Monsters Unearthed” exhibition explores the time when Africa and South America—continents that once fit together like puzzle pieces—split apart, and “sea monsters” like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs lurked in the newly formed waters of the South Atlantic Ocean. Visitors can dive into Cretaceous Angola’s cool coastal waters and examine the fossils of striking marine reptiles that once lived there. 

As Africa and South America drifted apart and a new ocean basin formed, trade winds blowing along the new Angolan coastline created the conditions for upwelling, an ocean process that drives the circulation of nutrients from the deep ocean to its surface. These nutrients in turn jump-started the food web that attracted the ferocious marine reptile predators featured throughout the exhibition.

Jacobs, an emeritus professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at ÎÞÂëרÇø Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, said he hopes people who see the exhibit grab onto the connection between Earth, oceans, time and life.

“The Earth is ever changing through geologic time, with land masses separated by massive Earth movements to form oceans where none were before,” he said. “Newly arranged land masses were separated from each other, like South America and Africa, isolating their land-dwelling species from each other and simultaneously opening oceanic pathways for the spread of aquatic sea monsters.”

“All these large-scale changes happened on the scale of tens of millions of years, and the exhibit captures some of the most striking snapshots preserved in the rocks and fossils to tell that story,” added Polcyn, research associate in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and senior research fellow, ISEM at ÎÞÂëרÇø.  

“Sea Monsters Unearthed” was developed by the National Museum of Natural History and organized for travel by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. The exhibition was made possible by the ISEM at ÎÞÂëרÇø, with thanks to Projecto PaleoAngola. – SITES/Smithsonian Affiliations and ÎÞÂëרÇø