UPPER WEST SIDE — Move over dinosaurs and humpback whales: a new star is stealing the limelight at the American Museum of Natural History.
Meet the Tardigrade, which is able to withstand temperatures above boiling and those colder than Pluto.
The microscopic eight-legged creature is just one of many highlighted in a new exhibit at the museum, "Life at the Limits: Stories of Amazing Species," which opens on Saturday.
The sprawling show explores dozens of "nature's superheroes," or strange creatures that scientists consider "ambassadors of the great story of evolution," explained museum president Ellen Futter.
Studying these organisms helps us understand how how species adapt and mutate to survive in extreme conditions, she added.
Diagrams, photos, large models and interactive video games spread throughout the exhibit showcase "adaptations that are almost too bizarre to believe," said Mike Novacek, senior vice president at the museum.
For example, Ruppell's Vulture can soar up to 37,000 feet in the air — the height at which airplanes fly. In fact, these African vultures have actually collided with planes, the exhibit explains.
Then there's the electric eel that paralyzes its victims with a 600-volt jolt, which is equivalent to the power of 400 batteries.
Museum-goers will see into the world of organisms that live in deep dark caves, and those that use mimicry — such as an octopus that can make itself look like a fish — to lure prey into their orbit.
"Life is tenacious and it will exist anywhere it can — and that's pretty cool," Novacek added.