Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies opens new Exhibit

Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies is really trying to baby its visitors with its newly-opened exhibit. A display titled, "Living Babies in Incubators" has now filled an area of the facility that once took guests to sea with pirates and all the way to Mars.

Aquarium General Manager Steve File says the exhibit harkens back to the oddity and carnival roots of Ripley Entertainment."The idea of putting babies in incubators started out as a sideshow feature and these doctors would tour around with these premature babies," File said. "It's a great story. I think people will really enjoy it."

In addition to tracing the history of incubating human infants, the exhibit also explains incubators used in the natural world, from bubble nests to brood pouches. To illustrate those, the display includes 16 aquariums filled with eggs, embryos and babies of various aquatic species.

Installing the exhibit cost $750,000, money File thinks is well-spent."We think this will be a great addition for our visitors," he saide. "Each time we change this exhibit, we try to do something that will keep people coming back. Everybody loves little babies. We're all about entertainment and if you learn something along the way, that's great."

Guests who have already toured the exhibit seem impressed."I really liked it," Alex Littlejohn, 10, of Petal, Miss., said. "It's cool to see all the babies."

Visitors to the exhibit can see embryonic sharks in egg pods, pollywogs on their way to becoming full-grown frogs, 65-million-year-old dinosaur eggs and baby seahorses so small they almost have to be viewed with a magnifying glass.

In introducing the exhibit Thursday, Bob George, a doctor of veterinary medicine, said the aquarium is the perfect host for the display."When you think about it, Ripley's aquarium itself is an incubator," George said. "This is what we're about - raising animals."The exhibit is expected to be open throughout 2008.