Museum reveals Jaws poster secret from @naturalhistorymuseum

Name: Museum reveals Jaws poster secret from @naturalhistorymuseum
Uploaded: 2025-07-11T16:11:23.000Z
Duration: 64 s
Channel: naturalhistorymuseum
Description: A museum curator reveals that the shark on the 'Jaws' poster is not a great white, but a mako shark. He takes the viewer into the museum's ichthyology collection to show the actual preserved specimen that inspired the artist, explains the historical context of its creation, and concludes by sharing facts about the mako shark's speed while showing a model in the museum's public hall.

A museum curator reveals that the shark on the 'Jaws' poster is not a great white, but a mako shark. He takes the viewer into the museum's ichthyology collection to show the actual preserved specimen that inspired the artist, explains the historical context of its creation, and concludes by sharing facts about the mako shark's speed while showing a model in the museum's public hall.

Creator: @naturalhistorymuseum on TikTok

Transcript

You know that the shark in the Jaws poster is not actually based on a great white shark? The toothy fish in question is actually based on a specimen housed here in the ichthyology collection of the American Museum of Natural History. And that specimen, not a great white. It's actually a short finned mako shark and it's still housed in our collection today. While all of our specimens here in the collection carry with them a certain scientific value, there's also a degree of artistic value and in

Topics: Pop Culture, Science, History, Movies

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