Dr Gunther's zoo of death

The corpse of a 16ft tall giraffe, treated with chemicals to preserve its body, will the centrepiece of the O2 Centre's new blockbuster.

Around 200 bodies - human and animal - feature in the Body World's show, presented by controversial anatomist Gunther von Hagens.

Tickets for the event go on sale today, in advance of its October opening.

Dr von Hagens has perfected a technique he calls plastination to preserve and reveal the inner workings of cadavers. He then places them in poses and treats them as art installations which, he says, give people a unique insight into human - and animal - biology.

Visitors will be able to see the giraffe's powerful heart and the sophisticated cardiovascular system that is needed to move blood around from its hooves to its horns. Other creatures which feature in the show include an ostrich, the largest living species of bird. Both pieces - understood to have been donated by zoos after dying naturally - are going on display for the first time in Britain.

Previous exhibitions by Dr von Hagens have been
picketed by protestors, who have criticised the events as crass and disrespectful to bodies of the dead.

Opponents have claimed the exhibits include the bodies of executed Chinese political prisoners. The German doctor, who invented the technique, denied the allegations, saying he only uses the bodies of people who have signed donor consent forms before their deaths. Nevertheless he cremated several of the disputed cadavers after he admitted he could not be sure of their provenance.

German authorities took the anatomist to court in 2003 after an animal rights group claimed he had removed and plastinated the cadaver of a gorilla from Hanover Zoo without the correct permission. However the case was not upheld and the gorilla specimen was returned to Dr von Hagens.

O2 chiefs hope the exhibit will prove as big a blockbuster as the Tutankhamun exhibition it replaces.

Body Worlds will feature a special presentation on the human life cycle and aging while a linked exhibition, The Mirror of Time, shows the body living through time, as it changes, grows, matures, peaks and finally wanes.

Dr von Hagens said: "The exhibition shows the complexity, resilience, and vulnerability of the human body through anatomical studies of the body in distress, disease and optimal health. The plastinates show the form, beauty, function, and potential of the human and animal body."

Dr von Hagens first provoked controversy when he performed a dissection live on Channel 4 in 2004.