T-Rex, prepare to be upstaged.

Ditto for Dippy the dinosaur.

Saturday, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History unveils a 58-foot skeleton of a sperm whale, the same species of malevolent monster that noshed on whaling ships -- and Captain Ahab's leg -- in "Moby Dick."

The beast is part of "Whales/Tohora," a traveling exhibit created by Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand's National Museum and repository of one of the world's largest collections of whale specimens.

The exhibit explores the evolution, anatomy and cultural legacy of the whale, from its place in South Pacific legend to the gory history of whaling and current efforts at conservation.

The sperm whale's wranglers, conservator Robert Clendon and exhibition installer Martin Kelly, are native Kiwis who have served as figurative whale riders as the exhibit has traveled to Washington, D.C., and Wichita, Kansas.

"The show fits into 11 40-foot shipping containers," Clendon says. "It's one of the largest touring shows in the world at the moment."

The sperm whale skeleton is so big they had to reinforce the Carnegie museum's floor with steel plates, he says.

A central part of "Whales/Tohora" discusses the whale's iconic place in the culture of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. The whale, or "tohora" plays a vital role in the identity of the Maori, much as the buffalo does in the culture of Native Americans.

Meat harvested from stranded whales fed tribes for weeks. The Maori named islands and hills after whales. They carved whale bones into ornaments and weapons, some of which will be on display at the Carnegie.

Children visiting the exhibit are encouraged to climb inside a life-size model of the heart of a blue whale, the largest creature on Earth. The whale heart is about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

Video re-creations of whales in the deep include "Search & Destroy," in which a sperm whale hunts for giant squid. Visitors also can experience a simulated whale ride.

A Maori saying formed the philosophical genesis of the exhibit: "Tere Tohora, Tere Tangata: Where whales journey, people follow."

The exhibit, more than three years in the making, was curated by Anton van Helden, collection manager of marine mammals at Te Papa.

"What I wanted to do is to create an experience for visitors that really got you in your heart, gave you a visceral experience," he says. "Some of the concepts ... I had from when I first started at the museum 20 years ago, and trying to get skeletons and specimens to support those stories takes a very long time."

Often, specimens are collected when a whale dies after washing up on the New Zealand coast. Whale strandings occur for a variety of reasons. While regrettable, they offer scientists like van Helden a rare opportunity to study whale anatomy and identify differences among species.

The sea has grudgingly yielded a scant few bones of the spade-toothed whale, which has never been seen in the flesh, alive or dead.

"We're pretty sure they're still swimming around out there," van Helden says. "These are animals that have to come to the surface to breathe, yet no one has ever seen one live. That, for me, typifies how little we know of this planet that we live on."

Whale of a tale

• The origin of whales have been traced to Pakistan, where the earliest ancestral whale, Pakicetus attocki, lived about 50 million years ago. It had legs and walked about on land. It was a hoofed mammal, and like modern whales, it is related to the pig and hippopotamus. The area which is now Pakistan bordered the ancient Tethys Sea, a vast shallow sea that stretched to the Mediterranean.

• The group of animals known as "whales" contains a number of families including dolphins and porpoises. Known collectively under the order Cetacea, whales are divided into two sub-orders -- the toothed whales and baleen whales.

• Some whales are so elusive that they've never been seen alive. The spade-toothed whale is known only by two skulls and a jaw bone with it's two distinctive teeth that were found at separate locations.

• Another ancestor of the whale was Ambulocetus natans, whose name means "walking whale that swims." It may have "heard" through its lower jaw bone. The sound passed through soft tissue to the ear.

• Whaling was a major industry in New Zealand but came to an abrupt halt in 1964. The whales were often hunted by shore-based whalers.

• Whale strandings are frequent in New Zealand because of its long coastline and continental shelf, where deep water runs close to shore. The island is also on the migratory routes for many species of whales.

• The skeleton from a 58.4-feet-long sperm whale that forms the central display in the "Whales/Tohora*" exhibit was one of 12 sperm whales that died in New Zealand several years ago after being washed up on land. The local Iwi (Maori tribe) gifted this whale to the people of New Zealand and gave it the name Tu Hononga, which means "the connection."

• Whale strandings provide scientists with the opportunity to study whale specimens. The scientists dress head-to-foot in protective gear to avoid infection.

• 300,000 whales, including dolphins, die each year as a result of entanglement with fishing nets.

Source: Anton van Helden, collections manager, Te Papa Tongawera, Wellington, New Zealand

Additional Information:

'Whales/Tohora'

What: Exhibit from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

When: Saturday through May 2. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays

Admission: $15; $12 for 65 and older; $11 for ages 3-18; free for age 2 and younger

Where: Carnegie Museum of Natural History , 4400 Forbes Avenue, Oakland

Details: 412-622-3131

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