It’s easy to dismiss the creatures of myth and legend as mere monsters of our own fantasies, created for simple amusement and storytelling, but the persistent tales that have survived generation after generation play an important role in the way we try to fill in the gaps of our knowledge and to perceive the limits of nature itself. They help us embrace the unknown, keep our passion for discovery alight, and humble us when they actually turn out to be a little true. The oceans, as it turns out, are home to colossal squid after all. This is the theme behind the Ontario Science Centre’s newest exhibition, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, & Mermaids, a tour combining fact and fiction through specimens both real and unreal as central elements in the science of discovery.

A baby’s cry rings out across the beach, a piercing wail of abandonment and desperate urgency. You’d be forgiven if you rushed without thought into the waters to save it, but the local Aztecs of Mexico might warn that you’ve fallen victim to the Ahuizotl, a monkey-like creature with the head of a dog that lives in the water and drowns its prey with a long, serpent-like tail.

While the main draw of the exhibition is certainly the unicorns, dragons, and Sasquatches we’re all familiar with, the real wealth for many will be the tour’s extensive collection of forgotten myths and cultural tales from around the world waiting to be discovered by crypto zoologists both young and old.

The Ahuizotl may or may not be real, but the stone carving of it resting under glass in the exhibition is genuine. Taken from a temple built five hundred years ago, it serves to warn of the real dangers of the mimicry talents of some animals and birds, producing infant-like cries so very confusing and convincing, and the power of the ocean to be unpredictable even to the most experienced of swimmers.

The exhibition divides itself into the elements, grouping creatures by their association with the sea, land, and air. It features large-scale models, impressive in size and detail. A five-metre green dragon protects the entrance, naturally, a formidable presence of scales, horns, leathery wings and penetrating eyes made imposing by coils of smoke rising from its base.

Some of the specimens are representative, others are real, and all sit next to artifacts that are genuine. Dinosaur fossils serve to remind us of the role that dragons, giants, chimeras, and griffins served as theories explaining the earliest discovery of mighty bones and extinct skeletons. A Narwhal horn is mounted close to a regal model of a unicorn, the one surely playing a role in the other, and specimens of manatees and hammerhead sharks offer insights into accounts of mermaids, mami watas, sea monks, sednas, and the New Zealand-based Yawkyawk.

Some exhibits are more than they seem to be. The Bigfoot, for example, a creature that many believe to be real today, is one of the more beautiful models on display. His soulful face and long arms, so powerful and gentle at the same time, seem far too extraordinary to come from any artist’s mind. Indeed, read the placard and you’ll discover it is, in fact a model of Gigantopithecus blacki, an extreme ape that once lived more than 300,000 years ago in what is today China, and whose fossilized remains help us today understand what the Yeti, Sasquatch, or Abominable Snowman might be like in person.

There is a real tentacle from a giant squid waiting for you in its specimen jar next to the room-enveloping model of the Kraken and an accurate model of the ten foot-tall Aepyornis, better known as the Elephant Bird that lived right up until the 1500s in Madagascar before going extinct, but has a long link in history to the Roc of the Arabian Nights and the Garuda of Hindu stories.

If you know your myths you’ve probably read about them in modern books, but the Ontario Science Centre is now home to legendary tomes, displaying ancient manuscripts of illustrations and early descriptions by both naturalists amateur and professional including the Prodigiorum oc Ostentorum Chronicon, a 1550 account of creatures from the sea, or the Historiae Naturalis de Quadrupedibus, a 1657 Polish encyclopedia of what was thought to be all the animals on earth, including the unicorn. How I wish I could take either home for a few nights reading.

Of course part of the science is in our own perception, the way artists try to bring these tales to life and you’ll find ancient roman coins depicting phoenixes and benu birds as they were thought of at the time, Japanese helmets adorned with dragon masks to offer displays of military might, and even Chupacabra action figures and toys marketed as souvenirs for the modern day Latin American myth that has risen to popularity since the 1980’s.

Shadow puppet shows in Beijing, China depict the dragon king and his court.  

There are two modern pieces that are extraordinary in their vision. The Barong Ket is a costume from Bali where two dancers give life to a fabled creature that is part lion, boar, tiger, cow, and dog in its battle against the demon queen Ragda in festival performances. The creature’s, small, excited face is beautifully surrounded by an ornamental headdress and a mane of combed white fur that is as friendly as it is mystical.

For the Pegasus of Greek Myth, a modern wooden carving of the winged horse features a gorgeous display of powerful wings against a flurried mane and tail along a body inspired by the styling of carousel animals from theme park rides. Most visitors, I’m sure, would be willing to find room in their house to bring this soaring companion home.

Set to open on Saturday October 9th, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns, & Mermaids is a collaboration of artifacts and knowledge from the American Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Australian National Maritime Museum, and the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. It’s a collection as rare and elusive as the creatures that have inspired it and with the end of its run scheduled for January 9th, 2011, certainly one to see before it disappears into the folds of legend itself.