Shark attack in Paris! Now there’s a headline for you. This is actually an interesting looking exhibition, great for the kids, both fun and educative too!

This photo of a shark (at sea, obviously) is by Flickr user sharkbait and used under cc licence

Sharks, manta rays and Holocephali make for strange cousins, but you’ll be able to get to know them in the flesh (as well as naturally preserved) at the Porte Dorée aquarium in this new exhibition, both spectacular and serious.

You’ll see zebra sharks, bamboo sharks (cultivated in aquariums), blacktip reef sharks (fished in Indonesia), and several species of Amazonian rays that regularly reproduce at the aquarium itself.

This photo of a shark (once again, at sea) is by Flickr user Richard Ling and used under cc licence

There will also be 20 preserved specimens made especially for the exhibition by Bernard Bourlès, the sole specialist in cartilaginous fish taxidermy in France. The skeletons, teeth and fossilised jawbones exposed, some of which are hundreds of millions of years old, come from the palaeontological collections of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle.

Don’t miss the fossilised Holocephali brain, 300 million years old (and shown for the first time ever) and the life-size model of a Megalodon jaw which measures nearly 2 metres high. The Megalodon is almost certainly the ancestor of the white shark and was one of the biggest races of sharks to have ever lived on Earth.

The exhibition « Dans le sillage de requins » (In the wake of the sharks) is at the Porte Dorée Aquarium (here) from 2nd February 2010 2 février – 6th March 2011. Closed Mondays. Open weekeday from 10am – 5.15pm, weekends and public holidays from 10am – 7pm. Admission: 6.50€ / 5€

More info (in French) on the official site: www.aquarium-portedoree.fr