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National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian Voices

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The Name Game: A 'Celebrity' Cephalopod Specimen Correctly Identified More Than 80 Years After Discovery

Collected by the iconic American writer John Steinbeck, the octopus has received a number of scientific monikers

Chihiro Kai | October 22, 2024

Brown mussel shells sit in a white box with orange paper underneath.

Interested in Using Museum Collections to Better Understand Freshwater Mussels? There’s Now an App for That

A new online resource combines data from 45 different natural history collections to provide easy-to-use information on America’s threatened freshwater mussels

Jack Tamisiea | February 29, 2024

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Museum Collections Provide Some Muscle for Mussel Conservation

For Endangered Species Day, learn about the marvelous biology and murky future of freshwater mussels

Jack Tamisiea | May 19, 2023

The inside of a lumpy white and brown seashell is smooth and pink.

The Story Behind the Seashells By the Seashore

Celebrate the first day of summer by learning how seashells form and what they can tell us

Megan Kalomiris | June 22, 2022
Smooth pearls in the shape of orbs and ovals are usually created by bivalves, like mussels, in pearl farms. As with all gems, the less blemishes they have, the more valuable they are. (Chip Clark, Smithsonian)

The True Story Behind How Pearls Are Made

Learn about how mollusks create these shiny gems and how that biological process could change as Earth’s waters warm

Abigail Eisenstadt | August 5, 2021
Chris Meyer, a marine invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, dives around French Polynesia with equipment used to track coral reef health. (Jenny Adler)

Meet the Reef Expert Collecting Environmental Time Capsules

Collecting DNA in waters worldwide can help scientists figure out which places are the most important for conservation.

Abigail Eisenstadt | July 7, 2021
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