'Restless Planet' opens up a new world of aquatic life

Want to stick your head into a Komodo dragon's lair? Come face-to-face with an Egyptian cobra? Walk under the Red Sea?

No problem.

Not enough for you? How about slogging through a Malaysian peat swamp without wetting your feet? Crossing the burning sands of the desert without breaking a sweat? Diving to a coral reef in your everyday duds?

You can, at the expanded Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, which will open its Restless Planet permanent exhibit Saturday. The aquarium has also renovated its Journey of Water galleries and doubled its collection to 12,000 animals and more than 700 species.

The $25 million project, funded by public and private money, began in March 2007. The entrance sign says "Restless Planet: A Global Journey That Brings You Closer to Home." The exhibits show Virginia as it was millions of years ago, as illustrated by modern-day environments and animals from around the world. Come on in.

Malaysian Peat Swamp

Ambience The first thing you hear is water dripping, which could be a concern in an aquarium, but it's just sound effects, along with bird and insect calls, and the occasional rumble of thunder. A darkened walkway with slightly spongy floors and overhead plants adds to the atmosphere.

Animals The big attraction is two tomistoma crocodiles. They may have narrow snouts, but the teeth are all there. Only six breeding pairs are in this country. The aquarium, which has partnered with the international Tomistoma Task Force, hopes for a nestful of little babies from this pair, to help with worldwide conservation efforts.

Check out Giant Asian pond turtles, giant gourami fish, painted terrapins and white-lipped pit vipers.

Cool factor The aquarium has a special permit to exhibit snakehead fish, which are native to Asia but have recently shown up in the Potomac River and elsewhere. They're ferocious predators that shouldn't be here. The aquarium kept them under lock and key and bars while the fish were living behind the scenes, and cannot release their tank water into local waters, lest it contain eggs.

Why Malaysia? Between 360 million and 299 million years ago, Virginia was a hot, humid, peat swamp. The remnants are found as coal seams in Southwest Virginia.

Coastal Sahara Desert

Ambience Enter a rocky tunnel that passes bright tanks of Mediterranean sea grass with cuttlefish and short-snouted seahorses.

Animals Bright Mediterranean fish and several terrariums of land animals, including Egyptian cobras and Algerian hedgehogs.

Check out The "rock" walls. They are made of sprayed concrete, sculpted and painted to resemble the Sahara Desert where Libya meets the Mediterranean Sea. The artists stayed true to geology - different rock types are shown throughout Restless Planet, and they are accurate to the real place.

Cool factor Too many things to mention. Cuttlefish are related to octopus, and they're a favorite of Maylon White, director of exhibits and animal husbandry: "They display an intelligence that you usually reserve for animals with backbones." The arrival of cobras and fat-tailed scorpions prompted the aquarium to train local medical technicians in the treatment of bites and stings, just in case. The scorpions glow blue-green in the black light of their enclosure. No other aquarium in the United States has short-snouted seahorses. And Algerian hedgehogs are just cute.

Why Libya? From 443 million to 417 million years ago, Virginia was a hot, dry desert on the edge of a shallow sea that covered much of the current state. Salt, sand and reefs are evident in the region west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. How do you think Saltville got its name?

Red Sea

Ambience You'll feel like Ariel, the Little Mermaid, as you go under the sea. The tunnel aquarium is 40 feet long, and you walk a curving path as fish and spotted eagle rays swim around you.

Animals The most obvious ones are the rays, which have 4-foot wingspans, black with white polka dots. They "fly" through the water, surrounded by brightly colored tropical fish.

Check out The coral reef tank. These are live corals, donated by other aquariums so that none was removed from the wild. They grow 7 inches a year, so frequent visitors can watch their soft, fluttery progress. They require especially bright light and are picky about temperature and salinity.

Cool factor Brides have already been asking about holding weddings in the Red Sea tunnel.

Why the Red Sea? Between 248 million and 206 million years ago, Virginia was stretched thin as the continents separated and opened the Atlantic Ocean. Rift valleys are still evident in the Piedmont. The Red Sea is an example of a rift that is still opening.

Flores Island, Indonesia

Ambience Bright and sunny, because of all the windows. Lynn Clements, the aquarium's executive director, says the Komodo dragons have "the sunny corner office" because they need natural daylight.

Animals Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards. There are two separate dragon enclosures, because they don't play well with others. The soil in the exhibits has been specially formulated for them, and keepers hide their food in logs and underneath things so they can forage like they would in the wild.

Check out The Indonesian finches that share the dragon exhibit.

Cool factor An acrylic dome called a "gopher hole" is in the middle of one of the dragon enclosures. Children and what the aquarium refers to as "limber adults" can duck under the floor of the exhibit and stick their heads up inside the dome, which may bring them nose-to-nose with a dragon.

Why Indonesia? Between 544 million and 460 million years ago, Virginia had active volcanoes, much like Indonesia has today. Mount Rogers, the tallest mountain in Virginia, is made of volcanic rock.

Journey of Water: In addition to Restless Planet, the aquarium has renovated and expanded its Journey of Water exhibit, tracing a path from Virginia's mountains to undersea canyons.

Upland River Gallery: This new gallery is open to the outdoors and includes bullfrogs, cardinals, large-mouth bass and sunfish. A waterfall flows into a freshwater aquarium that showcases life in and around Virginia's mountain streams.

Fall Zone and Coastal River aquariums: One tank illustrates the area around Richmond, and another reflects life farther downstream on the Coastal Plain. The star here is Atlantic sturgeon, a prehistoric-looking fish that really is prehistoric. It looks like it's wearing armor. The stoneroller fish, which pushes rocks around with its nose, is pretty cool, too.

Chesapeake Bay Gallery: You'll feel like you're walking under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, thanks to concrete support pilings along the hall and a wall mural. Oysters, horseshoe crabs, starfish, whelk and 50 kinds of fish are on display. Hands-on experiments and demonstrations teach about sediment, water weight, the Chesapeake Bay impact crater and other things you didn't think you'd care about, but will.

What else?

Some things, such as the Light Tower Aquarium and Norfolk Canyon Aquarium, have not changed. You can still see sharks, three kinds of sea turtles and fish native to the Atlantic Ocean. Other favorites may have changed location.

The IMAX theater remains, Marsh Pavilion is the same, the nature trail is still there, and the aviary still holds more than 30 species of birds.