An expedition he led to Lesotho in 1966 led to the discovery of the oldest fossilized mammal skeleton, and a trek to Queensland, Australia, in 1978 turned up one of the geologically earliest herrings.

Arthur collected ethnographic objects, mammal skeletons and molluscs (including a mollusk later named Neptunea sachsenheimi).

CARNIVOROUS BEETLES They wouldn't let us see this room, either, but in a closet in the osteological section of a building on Columbus Avenue is a room where mammal skeletons are cleaned of their flesh and sinew by hordes of hungry dermestid beetles, tiny black insects that actually are no threat to people.

The highlight is a life-size reconstruction of a mammal skeleton that was discovered in the Rezina region in 1966.

Due to infrequent strandings of the species, it was the first complete northern bottlenose whale skeleton to enter the UK's national collection of marine mammal skeletons for more than 20 years.

The effects of digestion on small mammal skeletons are most diagnostic on the teeth.

Visitors can also see large dinosaur reconstructions and a procession of mammal skeletons.