National Museum of Natural History

15 antique, scientific jars filled with preserved parasites on black background.

What Five Hollywood Horror Sensations Have in Common With Real Parasites

The big screen gives parasites a bad rap, but they’re not as bad as you think

Museum display of the Berns Quartz from the front. The specimen is behind counter-height glass with a backdrop of Arkansas' Ouachita Mountains.

The Story Behind the New 8,000-Pound Quartz at the Smithsonian

A one-of-a-kind natural quartz now welcomes visitors to the natural history museum

Headshot of a person under a canopy wearing a headlamp and holding a bat in gloved hands near their face

Get to Know the Biologist Who Identifies Bats by the Color of Their Poop

Melissa Ingala studies how the bacteria living in bat guts help them stay healthy

White-colored, fossil ammonite laying horizontally on top of a rock with a black background

What's Next for the 1.2 Million Prehistoric Fossils Now at Smithsonian

Digitization will soon allow researchers around the globe to access the latest specimens in the National Fossil Collection

Fossilized weigeltisaurid skeleton on beige background

The Oldest Airborne Vertebrate Animal Was a Reptile With 'Weird' Wings

Paleontologists describe a 255-million-year-old weigeltisaurid fossil that likely glided through the air with the help of expansive winglike membranes

Composite photo of seven different colorful and partially transparent deep-sea animals on black background

Massive Yet Misunderstood, What Is the Ocean's Midwater?

Discover what lives in the largest and least understood ecosystem on Earth

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