National Museum of Natural History

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Smithsonian Scientists Discover That Traditional Agricultural Practices in the Amazon Helped Yield an Enduring Crop Clone

Genetic analyses and interviews with Indigenous farmers revealed that most manioc crops resemble each other across time and space

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NMNH in Review: Top Discoveries by Museum Scientists in 2023

Indigenous woolly dogs, ground sloth pendants and more headline-grabbing findings by scientists at the National Museum of Natural History

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1.1 Billion Objects and Counting: Inside the Effort to Tally Natural History Specimens Around the Globe

This year, NMNH director Kirk Johnson helped spearhead an effort to add up the collections of the world’s largest museums

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Meet the Archaeologist Leading the Museum’s Repatriation Efforts

With more than 20 years of experience at the Smithsonian, Dorothy Lippert is championing a collaborative approach to repatriation

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Meet the Smithsonian Scientist Studying the Mysterious Mongolian Deer Stones

Archaeologist William Fitzhugh has spent the past two decades documenting carved stone monoliths in the Mongolian countryside to uncover the secrets of an elusive ancient culture

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2022 in Review: The Year’s Top Discoveries by Museum Researchers

An Ichthyosaur graveyard, oyster middens and other headline-grabbing findings by scientists at the National Museum of Natural History

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Viking Women and Black-Footed Ferrets Are Coming to the Museum This Holiday Season

Have a holly jolly holiday and tune into exciting programming about the natural world at the museum this December

A tan-colored skull and spine sticks out of a sandy surface. The jaws of the elongated skull are studded with sharp teeth that are angled at the viewer.

This November, Be Thankful for Specialty Spirits and Ancient Sea Monsters

Tune into programs about “underground astronauts,” archetype-busting archaeologists and more with the National Museum of Natural History

A landscape shot featuring a cloudy gray sky, snow-covered mountains in the distance above a turquoise expanse of glacial ice on the horizon and a dark blue expanse of water in the foreground.

Community Archeology Helps Bridge Gap Between Science and Tradition

Researchers and Indigenous people teamed up to use oral legends and science to discover an archeology site

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Celebrate Fabulous Fossils and More Natural History Programs This October

Tune into programs about pioneering archaeologists, festive bat celebrations and more with the National Museum of Natural History

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When Was the World Our Oyster? We Asked the Anthropologist Investigating Sustainable Oyster Practices Through History

Smithsonian anthropologist Torben Rick studies how different communities sustained oyster populations for centuries, and how that changed in the wake of colonization

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What Mummified Shrews and Giant Hornets Reveal About Biodiversity

Celebrate Earth Day by revisiting stories about the museum’s research on a bevy of bizarre and wonderful creatures

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Explore How Chimpanzees Perceive Gender and More Natural History Programs This April

Tune in to programs about tiny human relatives, fungus-farming ants and more through the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

A humpback whale breaches the surface of the ocean on a sunny day as three birds fly overhead.

10 Popular Scientific Discoveries From 2021

Read about the year's most attention-grabbing findings by scientists at the National Museum of Natural History

A pile of gourds spilling out of a tipped over container onto a brick floor with a bale of straw in the background.

Say Hello to the Scientist Harvesting Clues About Ancient Gourds and Maize

Archaeologist Logan Kistler explains how he studies the roots of plant domestication

A group of seven squashes and an ear of corn on grass littered with fallen leaves.

How Ancient Humans Helped Bring Pumpkins to Your Thanksgiving Table

Fall’s favorite fruits have long been essential staples in human diet and culture

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

Understanding people’s past land use strategies could help us better conserve global biodiversity now.

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

Researchers are studying past Arctic cultures and working with today's northern communities to address present-day socioeconomic and environmental challenges.

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

New study shows how extracting whole genomes from ancient material opens the door for new research questions and breathes new life into old samples.

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