National Museum of Natural History

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History has hundreds of scientists, researchers, curators and collection managers who connect people everywhere to life’s unfolding story. Here is a sampling of the unique voices that make up the chorus of ideas at the museum.

Landscapes have been managed by humans for thousands of years – some sustainably, others less so. The Martu people of Australia burn the grasses in continent’s Western Desert. The practice yields food, but also increases biodiversity in the area. (Rebecca Bliege Bird)

New Study Pushes Origins of Human-Driven Global Change Back Thousands of Years

April 19th, 2021, 3:00PM

/ BY Emily Leclerc

All modern dogs are descended from a wolf species that when extinct around 15,000 years ago. Grey wolves, pictured here fighting for food with now extinct dire wolves (red), are dogs’ closest living relative. (Art by Mauricio Antón)

Meet the Scientist Studying How Dogs Evolved From Predator to Pet

March 23rd, 2021, 6:00AM

/ BY Emily Leclerc

There are over eight million feet of film in the Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA), which is part of the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives. HSFA specializes in storing ethnographic footage created by anthropologists, filmmakers and travelers. (Brittany M. Hance and James Di Loreto, Smithsonian Institution)

How Film Helps Preserve the World’s Diversity

March 18th, 2021, 6:00AM

/ BY Abigail Eisenstadt

Sylvester Musembi Musyoka, a Kenyan colleague and field crew leader, recording a large mammal fossil bone during a virtual field project to collect fossils in Kenyan excavation sites that were in danger of being damaged by severe weather. (Nzioki Mativo/Smithsonian)

How the Pandemic Changed Scientific Exploration

March 11th, 2021, 6:00AM

/ BY Emily Leclerc

These walrus ivory carvings were collected in the mid-1880s. They were featured in a catalogue for the exhibition

How Arctic Anthropologists are Expanding Narratives about the North

January 26th, 2021, 6:00AM

/ BY Abigail Eisenstadt

Scientists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History sequenced the genomes of 363 bird species in 2020. (Brian Schmidt, Smithsonian)

10 Popular Scientific Discoveries from 2020

December 31st, 2020, 6:00AM

/ BY Erin Malsbury

Sequencing entire genomes from ancient tissues helps researchers reveal the evolutionary and domestication histories of species. (Thomas Harper, The Pennsylvania State University)

How Ancient DNA Unearths Corn’s A-maize-ing History

December 14th, 2020, 3:00PM

/ BY Erin Malsbury

Plants and animals around the globe use a wide variety of evolutionary strategies to survive harsh winters.

How Seven of Nature’s Coolest Species Weather the Cold

December 10th, 2020, 6:00AM

/ BY Erin Malsbury

Although pumpkins and other gourds have become staples at Thanksgiving, they were not the only original crops in the Americas. Other crops domesticated around the same time, like sumpweed, little barley and goosefoot, are now gone from today’s palates. (Smithsonian)

Our Thanksgiving Menu has Lost a Few Crops

November 24th, 2020, 6:00AM

/ BY Abigail Eisenstadt

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

September 3rd, 2020, 6:00AM

/ BY Erin Malsbury

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