Quick, where in Oklahoma City can you see a 40-foot humpback whale skeleton suspended from the ceiling?

If you answered at the Museum of Osteology at 10301 South Sunnylane Rd., you are correct.

Aside from the humpback, the museum has over 300 skeletons and over 400 skulls on display in the America’s only museum with a skeletal focus.

The displays are arranged on two floors around a central area where the museum’s largest specimens are located.

There are cases that explore each taxonomic family and class as well as displays that explain the differences between vertebrates and invertebrates, displays over comparative anatomy, adaptation and locomotion, criminal and disease pathology, and one case that features wildlife from Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Wildlife display is incredibly intriguing because each skeleton in the case once lived and roamed Oklahoma.

“We could have used a possum from anywhere, but we made sure this possum lived here,” Museum Owner Jay Villemarette said.

The museum also has a number of subtle of details that goers should look out for.

One of these is the placement of a rabbit in the Avian display at the foot of the California Condor with the placard “Rabbit: It’s what’s for dinner.”

There is also a hands-on nook called “Explorer’s Corner,” though the general policy for the museum is if you can touch something, you may.

The gift shop only adds to the general atmosphere of a respect for nature with purchasable items ranging from children’s biology toys to human skulls.

This is an afternoon highly recommended for the biology buff, and generally curious alike.

Rating: A+

To contact Mike Wormley, email staffwriter4@occc.edu.