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From Pet Store to Reptile Haven: The Evolution of Prehistoric Pets

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From Local Attraction to Internet Sensation: The Rise of The Reptile Zoo and Its Impact on Reptile Education and Awareness.

June 12th, 2024

Prehistoric Pets is nothing short of a must-see hidden gem with a huge following in Fountian Valley, California. It started off as a pet store, but owner Jay Brewer began to see enthusiasm for reptiles from customers so that became the focus. This led to the addition of “The Reptile Zoo,” which gave way to access to a wider range of reptiles that he could showcase. With their zoo license, they were now able to possess and showcase reptiles that aren’t available to your standard pet store. This includes alligators, crocodiles and many types of venomous reptiles.

The Reptile Zoo showcases a wide array of reptiles that gives the reptile section of any zoo a run for their money. Guests have an opportunity to get up close and personal with many different types of reptiles from around the world. The main focus is on education and giving the public a different perspective on animals that aren’t so mainstream.

The Reptile Zoo instantly became a huge hit. As the demand increased, the store began to buy out neighboring stores in the shopping plaza for expansion of its facilities. This continued over the decades, especially during the financial crisis of 2008 when nearby stores were foreclosing. For a small fee you can visit the showroom and see the wide world of reptiles. They offer many opportunities for hands on encounters, educational sessions and are available for all types of events. As the years have gone by, they have been asked to share their animals for movies, television and many unique attractions around the country. Their animals have been used for music videos, stunts and even a kiss from a snake when Sean “Poopies” McInerney accepted an award for the Jackass movie at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.

The age of social media helped springboard the brand to a whole other level. They became a viral hit with a series of unique videos of their captive creatures as well as the very likable personality of Jay Brewer. Videos of feedings, egg hatchings and various one-of-a-kind reptile/human interactions quickly propelled the online brand to millions of subscribers. As a result, viewers can see the humanization and personalities of these lovable animals that are usually cast aside as dangerous. During Covid, when the zoo could not have guests, the social media platforms kept the Reptile Zoo in business with its monetization. Covid also saw an increase in subscribers, most likely because of people at home browsing the depths of the internet. If that wasn’t enough, the expansion of demographics soon led to a deal for a television series on Roku TV, which they are working on a second season.

Whether you are a reptile fanatic or not, Prehistoric Pets and The Reptile Zoo are a must see if you are traveling to the area. The store gives anyone a new educational perspective on the world of reptiles and pets. The odds are very likely you will see something you have never seen before, and it might change your mind on the possibilities of a new pet.

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

  • With Juliette Brewer of Prehistoric Pets ©South Florida Insider

Attractions

BODYSCAPES Ignites the Miami Design District

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A Miami art experience that reimagines the female form as an evolving emotional landscape, honoring the ways women navigate vulnerability, transformation, and strength within the intimate terrain of their own bodies.


December 1, 2025

Miami is about to welcome an exhibition unlike anything else this season. A forty foot LED wall is lighting up the Design District with a monumental digital environment entirely shaped by women. BODYSCAPES, presented by Barcelona’s Load Gallery, opens its Miami edition at Jayaram Law Studio, and I was invited in early for a viewing before the public arrives.

Walking into the space felt like entering an emotional landscape rather than an exhibition. The imagery unfolded slowly at first, then washed over the room with color, motion, and softness that carried both vulnerability and undeniable strength. Bodies appeared as if carved from water and light. Figures dissolved into sky. The screen shifted from quiet introspection to powerful presence. As a woman, the experience felt deeply personal, as if the installation was acknowledging the parts of womanhood we often hold quietly.

Load founder Alex Simorré partnered with Miami attorney and arts advocate Vivek Jayaram to bring this exhibition to the United States. Jayaram shared that it is “one of the most compelling projects we have ever had the honor to host,” and after seeing it firsthand, the meaning behind those words becomes obvious.

Miami is a city that embraces complexity. Beauty, reinvention, identity, culture, movement, and resilience all coexist here. BODYSCAPES feels made for that landscape. It honors the nuance of womanhood and invites viewers to step into an immersive world that mirrors the emotional terrains women navigate every day.

Fourteen women artists, each expanding the body into something vast

BODYSCAPES features a global roster of women artists, each approaching the body as a living environment shaped by nature, memory, and emotion. Their work spans photography, digital video, AI, performance, and conceptual visual storytelling.

The full Miami lineup includes
Farrah Carbonell, Dancevatar, I M Devi, Michelle van Dijk, Alba Duque, Maria Fynsk Norup, Adaeze Okaro, Natalie Karpushenko, Emi Kusano, Christy Lee Rogers, SERIFA, Ivona Tau, X New Worlds, and Zhuk.

Together, they create a collective vision of womanhood that is fluid, surreal, grounded, and powerful.

Moments inside the exhibition that stayed with me

Alba Duque
Duque’s work confronts womanhood with radical honesty. In the group scenes, women gather across city streets and desert landscapes, walking shoulder to shoulder in underwear and soft neutrals. The effect is powerful. These bodies are unfiltered and real. They carry softness and stretch marks and strength with equal visibility. In quieter images, women hold their stomachs, hips, and thighs with a tenderness that feels both vulnerable and revolutionary. One of the most striking photographs shows a woman crouched low in the dust, holding another woman in a gesture of exhaustion and care. Another reveals a close-up of hands gripping the folds of skin on a stomach, a rare moment of truth that feels almost intimate to witness. Duque’s images celebrate women exactly as they are. No hiding. No smoothing. No pretending.

Christy Lee Rogers
Rogers’ underwater worlds feel almost cosmic. In one image, a woman floats against a star-flecked indigo sky, her white ruffled dress blooming around her like a constellation. In another, deep blue fabric twists around bodies tangled in motion, their limbs fading into shadow until they feel more like emotion than anatomy. The pink and lavender photographs toward the bottom of the page glow like memories half submerged, soft and dreamlike, as if you are witnessing a moment of surrender beneath the water’s surface.

Ivona Tau
Tau’s work shifts between digital fragmentation and bold color. One image shows a woman outlined in neon green and red, her profile dissolving into pixel-like texture that feels both artificial and strangely intimate. Another shows three women in sculptural blue forms, their bodies shaped into angular planes that look almost architectural. In the softer blue portraits, the figures’ faces melt into smooth, mask-like surfaces that suggest both anonymity and tenderness. Tau’s world is uncanny and emotional at the same time, revealing how digital distortion can expose truths rather than hide them.

Adaeze Okaro
Okaro’s photographs glow with deep amber and gold. Her women stand against a textured ochre backdrop, wrapped in flowing tulle that lifts and falls like flames. In one image, a figure is almost entirely veiled by soft orange fabric, holding a bouquet of white roses that feels ceremonial, almost sacred. In another, a woman raises her arms with slow, deliberate grace, the fabric pooling and drifting around her as if she is summoning light. The floral crown portraits are especially powerful, transforming the subject into a living sculpture of beauty, ritual, and self-possession.

What BODYSCAPES leaves you with

BODYSCAPES is not simply a digital installation. It is an emotional encounter. It views the female body not as an object but as a landscape of lived experience. Memory, tension, softness, conflict, healing, and rising strength all appear across the screen in forms that feel familiar in ways that words cannot always explain.

Standing there in the glow of the forty foot screen, I felt a sense of recognition. It was the recognition that every woman holds multitudes. That our bodies carry stories. That vulnerability and power are not opposites but companions. BODYSCAPES gives those truths space to breathe.

Miami will see many exhibitions this season, but this one feels singular. It feels like a place where women can finally be seen without restraint.

If You Go

WHAT: BODYSCAPES, a digital group exhibition presented by Barcelona’s Load Gallery
WHERE: Load Gallery Miami at Jayaram Law Studio
3800 NE 1st Avenue, Suite 500, Miami Design District
WHEN: December 2 through January 31 – open to the public December 2 to 9th, then by appointment only
COST: Free admission

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Dive Into the Unknown at the California Academy of Sciences

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