Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Ocean Predators

Experience the exhibition with an educator-led tour

Millions of years ago, Earth's oceans were home to some of the largest, fiercest and most successful predators ever. While dinosaurs ruled the land, huge prehistoric reptiles hunted the depths.

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"Grandchildren aged 6, 7 and 10 loved our visit. So much to see and do, especially the activity centre... Recommended for a family outing."

Visitor Pat - via Facebook

Ancestors of three types of ancient reptiles left the land and colonised the seas. They were ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. These three groups developed into awesome sea monsters that make today's great white sharks seem small.

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Go behind-the-scenes and learn about the various experts and creatives who helped bring the exhibition to life through compelling stories.

Crash of the titans

Ichthyosaurs suddenly disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous, 90 million years ago. We're not sure exactly why.

Possibly something starved the oceans of oxygen, and therefore the ichthyosaurs of their prey. Then, 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometre-wide asteroid smashed into the Earth, triggering earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Dust and smoke blocked the sun and the climate changed dramatically. This led to the extinction of nearly half the life on Earth and famously brought an end to the dinosaurs (except some of those that had evolved into birds). Nearly three quarters of ocean species died out, including the plesiosaurs and the mosasaurs.

The reign of the reptiles was over. But one group of marine reptiles survived – the turtles.

Turtles had been swimming alongside the other marine reptiles for millions of years, evolving harder shells in response to their ever more terrifying predators. Turtles were the only fully aquatic marine reptiles to survive the extinction event and are still with us today – just. There are seven species of marine turtles in our oceans today, but most are endangered.

Skull of a 13m Elasmosaur