What's So Scary? A Halloween Scavenger Hunt at Harvard Museum of Natural History October 29, 2011

Come explore the natural history behind some iconic Halloween animals like bats, spiders, owls, and wolves in this Halloween gallery exploration at the Harvard Museum of Natural History. Museum volunteers will have special activities in the galleries to help you learn more about these animals.

See the new exhibit Spiders! within Arthropods: Creatures that Rule, and learn about these amazingly versatile, and venomous, air-breathing animals which live on every continent except Antarctica, and in every terrestrial habitat. Check out the live Tarantula!

Find live poison dart frogs in The Language of Color exhibition. Explore the hall of dinosaurs and ancient reptiles to find the skeleton of the LateCretaceous flying Pteranodon, and see how its wings were different from those of bats you find in the Great Mammal Hall.

At 2 pm, catch a screening of Superbat. This 48-minute documentary explores the world of bats and the scientists who study them – including the late Donald Griffin, a Harvard zoologist who was the first to describe their echolocation ability in the 1940s. Using 3-D graphics to recreate the bats' acoustic vision and shooting with infra-red and high-speed cameras, this film offers an exhilarating "bats-eye" journey into the night.

Attending in costume is encouraged, but optional.

Harvard Museum of Natural History, the university's most visited museum, is at 26 Oxford Street, just a short walk from Harvard Square in Cambridge. Info: www.hmnh.harvard.edu or 617-495-3045. Red Line T, Harvard Square.

Official Website: http://hmnh.harvard.edu/