CHICAGO — For the first time, visitors to the Field Museum can get a behind-the-scenes look at the museum’s extensive collections and the work of the museum’s scientists.

“Less than 1 percent of what is in the Field Museum is on display,” said William Stanley, director of collections. “The behind-the-scenes tours allow the visitor to glimpse at the activities of the scientists that prepare, care for and study the Field’s specimens and objects to figure out what makes this planet tick.”

The Field Museum has launched three themed tours that are led by a field guide who works in the museum’s zoology, geology, botany and anthropology collections.

Museum Marvels features entomologists at work, fossils, botany and a trip to the museum library’s rare book room; Curious Creatures includes the birds, insects, and mollusks collections; Science Secrets highlights cryogenic storage, wet collections — including komodo dragons — and the mammals prep lab, where specimens are stored, studied and preserved.

Tours, which take approximately one hour, begin at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and are limited to 10 people per tour; they are designed for adults and children ages 12 and over.

A variety of group tours are also offered through the group sales office.

www.fieldmuseum.org