Sierwald and other Field scientists collaborated closely with exhibit designers to ensure accuracy of what is shown in the exhibit. The most striking animal in the place is an 11-foot crayfish that makes the ground tremble slightly as it crawls from the water table below up the wall of the exhibit. It is so big, contractors had to break through the concrete slab the museum sits on and dig a pit into the landfill below to accommodate it. And an earwig, the itsy bitsy bane of many a bathroom, in the exhibit is 4 feet long and acts like it is about to lethally attack passing visitors. Many may find her endearing, however, as the warnings are chiefly to stay away from her just-hatched youngsters.
Maternal behavior is common for mammals, but it is exceptionally rare for insects.
The sheer number of organisms in the soil becomes clearer in an exhibit section that shows the equivalent of just a teaspoon of dirt enlarged 100 times. The protozoa eat the bacteria, the nematode worms, springtails, mites and pseudoscorpions eat the protozoa and each other. They, in turn, are food also to bigger predators. Knowing who feeds on what and how it all interconnects to make soil rich and fecund is a tantalizing question for scientists. Soil is the basis of human life, too, after all.