To help with the process of working out how we identify animals we know from reconstructions alone, letвЂ™s see if we can work out how weвЂ™d classify a well known fictional animal, Nintendo character MarioвЂ™s companion and steed Yoshi*, this one acquired in a Happy Meal and currently on display in our exhibition. What happens if we start from an animal that we only know from a reconstruction? In the past (and today) mermaids, unicorns, giants, cyclopses, goatsuckers and deathworms have all been speculatively described either due to pervasive myths, hoaxes, delusions or confusion withВ other animals. Initial encounters with kangaroos drew comparisons with more familiar mammals such as jerboas, greyhounds, mice and deer, the creature so strange to European explorers it didnвЂ™t fit within existing classifications. From dodgy taxidermy, dinosaur toys, glass models and wildly inaccurate images of animals which were claimed to have been studied from life, the exhibition explores how we make sense of a newly discovered animal species from first encounters with living animals through to reconstructions made from written accounts and sketches. The exhibition is centered around George StubbsвЂ™ painting of a kangaroo, an iconic image despite the fact that he never saw a kangaroo first hand. Our current exhibition Strange Creatures: The Art of Unknown AnimalsВ features images, specimens and objects all related to how animals are represented through time. Here IвЂ™d like to explore some of the meetings between Europeans and Australiasian marsupials that preceded CookвЂ™s visit. It is an emblem of the age of exploration at the historical threshold of the European occupation of Australia.

It may not be anatomically perfect, but this is how Britain came to know the kangaroo. StubbsвЂ™ image became the archetype for representations of kangaroos for decades вЂ“ reproduced and refigured prolifically.

Commissioned by legendary naturalist Joseph Banks, painted by celebrated animal artist George Stubbs, and based on findings from Captain CookвЂ™s famous voyage, this kangaroo truly captured the countryвЂ™s imagination. This painting helped begin EuropeвЂ™s relationship with Australian wildlife. This is the first painting of an Australian animal in Western art. It is is centred around a painting that resulted from that voyage of CookвЂ™s вЂ“ a kangaroo by George Stubbs. Our current exhibition Strange Creatures: The Art of Unknown Animals explores how newly discovered animals are communicated to the public back home. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London

The Kongouro from New Holland (Kangaroo), George Stubbs (1772).

The most unknown animal in the world