Allen's hummingbird gorget magnified at 100x
Research and Collections
There's a Feather for That
Bird Curator Allison Shultz lays out the surprising powers of plumage and how understanding feathers helps humans—and helps humans to help birds.
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Miner, fuzz, macro, yellow, wing
Research and Collections
Big Bee Bonanza
Help digitize NHM's bee collections and keep bees buzzing with this crowd-sourced community science project
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SEM scan of a brittle star
Research and Collections
Think Small With SEM
Seeing the big picture with tiny specimens and one powerful scanning electron microscope
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Biodiversity Week 2022 Header Image
Research and Collections
Biodiversity in L.A. Backyards
A week's worth of spotlighting species (and some ways you can help) in recognition of California's Biodiversity Week, September 7–15, 2024.
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Ailurarctos reconstruction Mauricio Anton
Research and Collections
Eating bamboo? It's all in the wrist.
An ancient fossil reveals the earliest panda on an exclusively bamboo diet and the evolutionary history of panda's false thumbs
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An opaque white and transparent mineral with many spiky outgrowths.
Research and Collections
The Secret Power of Zeolite
Our Curator of Mineral Sciences, Aaron Celestian, talks about why this mineral blows his mind!
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Cave of swords
Research and Collections
Gypsum Crystals: Mineral Ships for Alien Life?
Can gypsum crystals hold alien life from Mars? Explore every facet of these incredible crystals with our Mineral Sciences Curator Aaron Celestian.
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Cooper's hawk on a railing by inaturalist user radrat
Research and Collections
How Littler Raptors Are Making It in the Big City
Picturing the perfect city raptor with community science data
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year of the tiger
Research and Collections
Year of the Tiger
Celebrate the 2022 Lunar New Year with highlights from the collection
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Hank PR Vid Still
Research and Collections
Fragmentary Fossils Help Tell the Whole Evolutionary Story
Paleontological “twigs” from our fossil past can help us reconstruct branches on the tree of life
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