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National Museum of Natural History

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The History of the World in Seven Snails

For National Snail Day, museum research fellow Melissa Betters explores the mollusks’ notable nature

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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

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

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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

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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

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

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

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.

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