Fossils and minerals don’t quicken your pulse? Well, how about Tristan, the T-Rex? His skeleton is among the best-preserved in the world and, along with the 12m-high Brachiosaurus branchai, part of the Jurassic superstar line-up at this highly engaging museum. Elsewhere you can wave at Knut, the world's most famous dead polar bear; marvel at the fragile bones of an ultrarare Archaeopteryx protobird, and find out why zebras are striped.
There are lots of unexpected highlights, including the massively magnified insect models and a creepy but artistically illuminated gallery of ethanol-preserved creatures used for research. In the miniplanetarium you can journey deep into space and learn what the big bang was all about and how the planets were formed. The Evolution in Action hall clears up such age-old mysteries as why peacocks have such beautiful feathers.