I Just Learned That The Shark On The Jaws Poster Isn’t A Great White; So What Else Is A Lie?

Have you ever had one of those moments when you learn some kind of fact that contradicts something that you thought you had previously known, and then it starts to make you question everything you thought you already knew?

Well, that's what happened to me when I learned that the Great white shark on the iconic poster for the film Jaws isn't a Great white shark at all.

I was flipping through Instagram when I stumbled across a video from the American Museum of Natural History with curatorial associate of Ichthyology (that's the study of fish) Ryan Thoni.

While the shark in the movie is absolutely supposed to be a Great white shark, the one on the poster is actually a shortfin mako shark.

And not just any shortfin mako, one that is in the museum's collection.

Artist Roger Kastel — who painted the poster for Jaws and later The Empire Strikes Back — visited the museum to get some inspiration for a movie about a shark that this young director named Steven Spielberg was making.

"He took photos of the shark models, including this one made from a short-finned Mako, which eventually became the key art for the now-iconic poster," Thoni said as he showed off part of a preserved shark that sure enough looks like the poster.

This stunned me.

First of all, it was news to me that if I wanted to see the good stuff a museum keeps behind the scenes, all I have to say is that I'm working on a movie poster.

Maybe I'll try that next time I go to a zoo.

"Sir, get out of the panda enclosure and stop blasting your camera flash right in their eyes."

"No, guys, it's cool; I'm doing it for a movie poster…"

I'm also not sure how we just passed the 50th anniversary of the film (the museum is a couple of weeks late on posting that video), and this is just coming to my attention now.

It kind of has me concerned about what else I've been misled about over the years.