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National Museum of Natural History

The National Museum of Natural History’s entomology collection has many Asian giant hornets. Recently, the collection grew with new specimens from an eradicated nest in Washington State. (Matthew Buffington, USDA-ARS)

Family Members Follow Original Asian Giant Hornet to Smithsonian

Scientists plan to analyze the hornets’ DNA to learn more about the invasive species' mysterious arrival.

The Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems working group combines expertise from paleontologists and ecologists to improve our understanding of ancient and modern ecosystems. (Mary Parrish, Smithsonian)

Interdisciplinary Study Shows How Species Interactions Affect Evolution

The study shows that it’s possible to model how competition for resources, symbiosis or predation shapes the evolution and survival of species.

The Hope Diamond came to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in 1958. Since then, museum scientists have uncovered a lot about the diamond’s intriguing past. (Dane A. Penland, Smithsonian)

Get to Know the Hope Diamond’s Keeper

We caught up with Dr. Jeffrey Post to hear the story of this infamous blue diamond, see what makes the National Gem and Mineral Collection so special and learn about the countless things minerology can reveal about the past and future.

The Smithsonian’s Division of Birds provided about 40% of the tissue samples for the new bird genomes in a landmark study. (James Di Loreto, Smithsonian)

Landmark Study Shares Smithsonian Bird DNA Collected Over Three Decades

A new study in Nature published the genomes — the complete DNA sequences — of 363 species of birds, opening the door for hundreds of new studies.

This mummified steppe bison was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in the 1970s. Right now, museum audiences can see it online during a virtual tour. (Michelle Pinsdorf, Smithsonian)

Bison Mummies Help Scientists Ruminate on Ancient Climate

Bison mummies hold valuable information for researchers who want to understand how biodiversity evolved and responded to climate change.

From leaf-engineering to complex social circles, there’s more to bats than flying and echolocation. (Charles J Sharp)

Five Reasons to Love Bats

For Bat Week this year, we rounded up five reasons to love and conserve these misunderstood mammals.

Cole had been using fossils in the National Museum of Natural History’s Springer collections for her research long before joining the museum as a curator. (Selina Cole, Smithsonian)

Meet the Scientist Using Fossils to Predict Future Extinctions

Selina Cole has dedicated her career to understanding the emergence and disappearance of species throughout Earth’s history.

Bennu is shaped like a three-dimensional diamond and seemingly smooth from far away. OSIRIS-REx is in the foreground of this artist’s replication. The spacecraft will gather a sample from Bennu next week. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)

What an Asteroid Could Tell Us About Ancient Earth

As OSIRIS-REx approaches Asteroid Bennu, a new study suggests that massive boulders on its surface have moved a lot over the past few hundred thousand years.

The Pacific bigfin squid (Magnapinna pacifica) in the Smithsonian collections that Mike Vecchione and Richard E. Young used to describe the deepest-known species of squid. (Richard E. Young)

Get to Know the Scientist Discovering Deep-Sea Squids

For this month's "Meet a SI-entist," we chatted with the Smithsonian's curator of cephalopods to learn more about these wonderfully weird animals on World Octopus Day.

Giant squids can grow to over 40 feet long. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has a giant squid specimen on display in the Sant Ocean Hall and several others in its collections. (John Steiner, Smithsonian)

How Scientists Learn What Lives in the Deep Ocean

By collecting, storing and analyzing specimens and DNA from the deep sea, researchers are improving their knowledge about marine biodiversity in the deep ocean.

An artistic representation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (NIAID)

Six Videos that Put the Pandemic in Context

These six video webinars explore the life cycle of modern outbreaks — from infection to immunity — and put COVID-19 into historical context.

While digging through decaying carcasses, vultures expose themselves to dangerous pathogens. Gary Graves studies the unique microorganisms in the guts of these birds that help them resist infections. (Joyce Cory)

Meet the Scientist Studying Vulture Guts for Clues to Disease Immunity

We caught up with the Smithsonian's curator of birds for “Meet a SI-entist” to talk about what makes vultures lovable, curating the National Bird Collection and co-organizing ornithology’s most ambitious project.

Smithsonian anthropologists hold up the world’s longest beard after it was donated to the National Museum of Natural History in 1967. (Smithsonian)

Five of Nature’s Best Beards for World Beard Day

Humans aren’t the only bearded beasts. In the sea, the sky and the land between, organisms sport bristles, fuzz and fur of all styles. Instead of splitting hairs over what type of beard is best, here are five of nature’s finest.

Southern elephant seals normally live in the South Atlantic, often as far south as Antarctica. These are young male Southern elephant seals from the South Shetland and Anvers islands, Antarctica. (Daniel Costa / University of California, Santa Cruz under the National Marine Fisheries Service permits (numbers 87-1593 and 87-1851-00) and ACA authorization)

What A 1000-Year-Old Seal Skull Can Say About Climate Change

In a new study published today, scientists at the Smithsonian explain how a seal native to the South Atlantic but found in Indiana likely swam to the middle of North America over 1000 years ago.

Collections at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History that are similar to objects in the show “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” (Smithsonian)

Six Avatar-Themed Items in the Smithsonian Collections

Check out six specimens and artifacts in our collection that are similar to fictional objects in "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

The Smithsonian’s National Mosquito Collection has about 1.9 million specimens from around the world that researchers use to study diseases like malaria. (Paul Fetters for the Smithsonian)

Get to Know the Scientist in Charge of Smithsonian’s 1.9 Million Mosquitoes

We caught up with Dr. Yvonne Linton to talk about what it’s like managing the Smithsonian's almost 2 million mosquito specimens and trying to determine ones are most dangerous to people.

Not much is known about the megamouth, which was first observed by scientists in 1976. A new specimen (not pictured above) has traveled to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where researchers will study it to learn more about its behavior and life cycle. (Zola Chen)

Rare Megamouth Shark Arrives at the Smithsonian

Studying and eventually preserving the megamouth will help researchers learn more about the puzzling species, allowing them to examine the sharks’ impact on the ocean ecosystem and food chain.

Scientists use a California condor specimen from 1835 — part of the Smithsonian’s very first collection of items — to study the critically endangered species. Pictured: a young California condor in Pinnacles National Park. (Gavin Emmons)

How Scientists Still Use the Smithsonian’s First Collections, 175 Years Later

Historic museum specimens help us learn more about what a species once was like and what it could be like in the future.

Smithsonian Geologist Liz Cottrell answers your questions in the National Museum of Natural History’s YouTube series, “The Doctor Is In.” (Smithsonian Institution)

How to Identify Rocks and Other Questions From Our Readers

Don't miss the season finale of the National Museum of Natural History's popular YouTube series, the "Doctor Is In."

Bat ticks (Ornithodoros) under a microscope. These parasites primarily feed on bats and were collected from bats roosting beneath a Mayan Temple in Belize. Very little is known about these ticks and many species are unknown to science. (Kelly Speer)

Why We Need to Save the Parasites

Parasite extinction will have lasting and far-reaching consequences for biodiversity, and subsequently for humans.

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