I often bang on about the Hunterian Museum. It’s one of those small, little-known places that punches above its weight. A place that tourist guides like to refer to as ‘hidden gems’.

The Hunterian is largely based on the personal collection of John Hunter, an 18th Century surgeon extraordinaire who accumulated thousands of surgical specimens and unusual body parts. As well as the ongoing permanent collection, the Hunterian Museum regularly launches small, temporary exhibitions. Such an occurrence happened a few days ago with the opening of Extinct – a look at, well, the extinct animals lost to us forever.

The exhibition includes skeletal remains from just about every extinct species – dinosaurs aside – that you ever heard of. Dodos, megalodons, thylacines, mastodons…it’ll certainly improve your naturalistic vocabulary if nothing else. Beside the species that are no more, the exhibition also highlights the plight of many mammals that are still – just about – with us, such as the panda, the gorilla and the polar bear.

It’s quite a departure for the Hunterian, which is famous more for its human anatomical specimens. The zoological collection has always been there (as this archive image shows), but is often overlooked.

The exhibition runs until 23 July and is free to visit. If you’ve never been to the Hunterian, use this as an excuse to get along to one of London’s best ‘secret’ museums.