the american museum of natural history is a landmark of manhattan's upper west side, with a staff of more than 1,200. the museum sponsors over 100 special field expeditions each year. the museum is famous for its habitat groups of african, asian and north american mammals, for the full-size model of a blue whale suspended in the hall of oceans, for the haida carved and painted war canoe from the pacific northwest, and for the "star of india", the largest blue sapphire in the world. the circuit of a complete floor is devoted to vertebrate evolution, including the world-famous dinosaur replicas. the museum's anthropological collections are also outstanding: halls of asian peoples and of pacific peoples, of man in africa, native americans in the united states collections, general native american collections, and collections from mexico and central america.