Home of the best preserved remains of the dodo, Oxford University's Museum of Natural History is about to gain a new lease of life. The building – which contains some of Britain's earliest natural history specimens including the first scientifically described remains of dinosaurs – is at the centre of celebrations that started this week to mark its 150th anniversary. Events include lectures by Sir David Attenborough and the unveiling of a plinth to commemorate the debate on evolution between Thomas Huxley and Bishop Sam Wilberforce, which took place in the building in 1860. However, most of the celebrations will focus on the museum's special wildlife specimens and, in particular, its dodo.

The dodo, the most famous of all animals to have become extinct in human history, was discovered by Europeans in 1598 on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. Dogs and rats introduced to the island by humans then started to destroy the birds' nests and eggs and by 1680 the last dodo was dead. The bird became a curiosity in Europe and its preserved remains were sought out by collectors, including Elias Ashmole who brought one to Oxford.

Today only its mummified head and foot remain. Although minimal, these represent the most complete remains of a single dodo anywhere in the world and have proved to be of particular value to science. (And they are kept under lock and key: the dodo pictured here beside a model is the one on public display in the museum, but it is a composite of different skeletons.) In particular, the soft tissue of the Oxford dodo recently provided scientists with a sample of dodo DNA. When researchers compared this DNA with that from other birds, they found that the closest living relative to the dodo is the Nicobar pigeon from south-east Asia.