They sit in the storage rooms of grand museums, guarded remains of once-living creatures now frozen in time. They almost seem alive, skeleton frames posing behind a plate a glass: The spider monkey looks impish; the Atlantic Octopus enlarges in rage; the Juvenile Chimpanzee hunches over like an old man; while the Leafy Sea Dragon coyly flaunts its fins. “It’s interesting how skeletons and specimens in fluid can retain or reflect a character,” photographer Jim Naughten tells TIME. Naughten’s Animal Kingdom, currently on show at Klompching Gallery in New York, has been described as an attempt to reanimate history.