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National Museum of Natural History

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The Buffalo is Life: Inside the Symbiotic Relationship Between Bison and Native Communities

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Celebrate the Comeback of the American Bison This Spring at the National Museum of Natural History

Trees line a winding river, and the blue sky is reflected in the water

Building a Library of Life: How Smithsonian Collections Are Revolutionizing Ocean eDNA Research

A multitude of sea lions sit very close together on a crowded beach.

Reading Between the Bones: New Research Reveals an Unexpected Growth Spurt in California Sea Lions

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

A group of several bison with dark fur traverses a light green colored landscape of grasslands as rays of late afternoon light stream through several gold-tinged clouds. In the distance are more bison and the horizon is framed by distant mountains.

For the Love of the Buffalo

Elephant-like mammoth and mastodons trudge across a pond while a group of giant camels stop for a drink. In the background are snow-capped mountains. Crouching in the grassy foreground are a pair of sabertooth cats.

What the Demise of Mammoths Can Teach Us About Future Extinctions

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Four Reasons Why There Is More to the Hummingbird Than Meets the Eye

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

Under the waves swirls a bed of sea grass. Above the water is a coastal home attached to a dock.

New Study Puts Smithsonian Conservation Efforts to the Test

Jun Wen sits at a wooden table in front of a bookshelf examining a herbarium booklet of pressed plant specimens.

Meet the Scientist Who Maps the World’s Past and Present Plants

A flower with bright pink petals and a yellow interior blooms on the surface of a water near several green and brown lily pads.

New Smithsonian Exhibition Explores the Intersection of People and Nature

A diver uses a camera to study a barnacle-covered submarine resting on the seafloor

How Shipwrecks Shape the Seafloor

Head scientist at the Smithsonian Marine Station, Valerie Paul, collects blue-green algae samples to study the chemicals they emit. Those chemicals can endanger coral reefs, but also have biomedical potential. (Raphael Ritson-Williams)

Meet the Marine Scientist Studying How Algae Communicates

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