‘Extreme Mammals' Stomp for NHM

See ancient beasties via "vivid reconstructions" and "rare fossils."

Mammals? We're a varied lot. Some of us get dressed every day and head to the office, picking up a large latte on the way, while some of us climb trees in order to find a comfy branch, a perfect spot to wile away the morning.

But whether you're a human or a sloth or a cheetah or a canine, one thing is true: The history of mammalia is as fascinating as all get-out. And as for the ancient mammals we'll never meet, or those mammals who live in far corners?

Well, they're fascinating, too, as the human end of the mammal spectrum will find out in the middle of May.

For that's when Extreme Mammals: Odd Creatures, Unusual Features debuts at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Organized by the American Museum of Natural History, in New York, the exhibit has a host of partners among several esteemed science institutions located near and far.

Neato.

And, true true, you're very likely an extreme mammal, because you're cool and you live life to the fullest. Or maybe we mean X-treme, a label that makes one feel just a tad cooler.

But other extreme mammals do and have existed, too, and that's what this exhibit will spotlight. Pause and picture mammals like the mega Columbian mammoths of yore and land whales. 

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Land whales!

Those mammals, as well as the extreme beasties who occupy our planet nowadays (think super-fast cats as well as take-it-slooooow sloths), will be featured in the four-month exhibition.

True, NHM will not put an honest-to-blowhole land whale on display, but the extreme mammals of yore will be present through "rare fossils" and "vivid reconstructions," as well as "animated computer interactive" activities.

So what makes a mammal extreme (or X-treme, if you prefer)? The science-loving museum cites "over-sized claws, ferocious fangs, trunk-like snouts, and huge, complicated horns."

Granted, we latte-sipping, office-working mammals don't possess any of those amazing features. And, honestly, that's a little sad, that we'll never grow trunk-like snouts or big claws.

But we can make a date at NHM from May 14 through Sept. 10 to admire other mammals and all of their various those-can't-be-real traits and attributes.

They are real, and were, depending on whether the mammal roamed our planet millions of years ago, or thousands, or crawl/climb/dash even as we go about our latte-buying, computer-typing lives today.

Mammals are major, whether they're human beings, mammoths, felines, or the giants of the seas. Check 'em out, at the Exposition Park museum, over the summer of 2017.

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