In this fascinating book Te Papa’s science team of experts showcase 100 collection objects that demonstrate the breadth and depth of the collection and the museum’s important ongoing research. Te Papa’s expert curators and collections managers tell the fascinating stories of everything from the colossal squid to the flaming flagfins and from sea spiders to beaver fleas. Since the Colonial Museum opened in 1865 and the first director, Sir James Hector, began collecting items of geological and natural history significance, the collections of New Zealand’s national museum have become enormously significant -– not to mention enormous.