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wednesday

You can get through the lead exhibit at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall in less time than it takes you to walk to its convenient 17th and M Streets location. But “Bizarre Beasts: Past and Present” is worth the stroll. The beasts in question include the well known—the exhibit kicks off with a stegosaurus—as well as the outright weird, such as the diatryma, a massive predatory bird that hunted the ancestor of the horse. For true freakishness, though, the helicoprion beats out the rest. It’s almost a standard-looking shark—until you get to its teeth. When they wore down, they would rotate into the lower jaw instead of falling out, forming what looks like a buzz-saw begging for a piece of plywood to be slowly pushed toward it. The exhibit is on view from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, to Friday, Feb. 2, 2007, at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall, 17th & M Sts. NW. Free. (202) 857-7588. (Ryan Grim)