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National Museum of Natural History

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A New Pterosaur, Ancient Asteroid Brine and More Discoveries from the National Museum of Natural History in 2025

The year’s most notable findings also include insights into dog and sheep domestication and a new species of manta ray in the museum’s collection

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Ginseng Family Secrets, Super-Flexible Whale Jaw Joints and More in the National Museum of Natural History's Summer Summary

Explore a few exciting discoveries by museum researchers that you may have missed over the past few months

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Meet the Scientist Who Discovered a New Genus of Curious Catfish Hiding in Colombia’s Most Endangered River

Museum ichthyologist Cristhian Conde-Saldaña uses evolutionary genetics to study freshwater fishes and document at-risk biodiversity

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To Correct Some Fishy Anatomy, Researchers at the National Museum of Natural History Get Inside the Head of a Coelacanth

The new work adds to the legacy of Dave Johnson, a long-time museum curator famed for his detail-oriented research on fishes

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Meet the Scientist Using Micro-CT Scans to Explore Big Questions About Evolution

Corinthia Black studies the anatomical features of fishes and spiders to understand how life on Earth takes shape

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This Invasive Species Awareness Week, Learn How Museum Researchers Track the Rogue Wildlife Infiltrating American Ecosystems

From a beautiful fish that’s eating the Caribbean to a tiny bivalve with a huge impact, North America’s most notorious introduced species have reshaped the continent’s ecosystems

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Meet the Museum Scientist Who Sails the Ocean and Sifts Through Seafood Markets to Identify Fishes

From field sites in Vietnam and the coast of West Africa to her laboratory in Washington, D.C., Kate Bemis applies her knowledge of fish diversity to support sustainable fisheries

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

Unlocking natural history collections is key to monitoring and protecting Earth’s environments using eDNA

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When the Moon Obscures the Sun, How Does Life on Earth Respond?

From fish to flamingos, here’s what scientists know — and what they hope to find out — about how plants and animals react to a total solar eclipse

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Celebrate the Holiday Season with the Museum’s Stunning Collection of Blue Specimens

Learn how this rare hue shows up in the natural world with some of the Smithsonian’s bluest specimens

A large, brown tooth sits on top of a colorful map of the California coast

Summer Summary: A Mysterious Fossil Tooth, Metallic Planet and Marine Hitchhikers

Catch up on the museum discoveries you may have missed over the past few months

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Discover How Domesticating Dogs Influenced Human Evolution and Other Natural History Programs This May

Participate in a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon and more this month at the National Museum of Natural History

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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

Several grey, white and orange king penguins perch on top of their eggs, which are snuggly sheltered under a flap of their flabby skin between their feet.

Get To Know the Natural World’s Most Devoted Dads

Celebrate Father’s Day with pudgy penguins, karate-kicking frogs and other dependable animal dads

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

How Shipwrecks Shape the Seafloor

Sunken vessels can influence the structure, chemistry and biology of marine ecosystems, even decades after they occur

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

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Meet the Expert Studying Fishes That Spit Water to Hunt

Smithsonian Ichthyologist Matt Girard talks about how and why he studies archerfishes.

Climate change is causing oceans to warm, which in turn affects fish and fishers. Now, scientists are turning towards management strategies to protect species and the industry. (Claudio Contreras-Koob/International League of Conservation Photographers)

Why Fishes are the Catch of the Day for Climate Research

Fishery management systems can teach scientists how fish can be raised sustainably in wild fisheries.

The Volta’s electric eel, Electrophorus voltai, emits the strongest shocks of any animal on Earth. Although these eels were thought to be loners, the species was recently seen hunting in a group. (L. Sousa)

Shocking Study Finds Electric Eels Hunt Together

The study challenges what researchers know about eels’ supposed loner behavior.

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

Here are some of 2020’s most popular discoveries involving scientists from the National Museum of Natural History.

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