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National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian Voices

A circular rock is cut in half against a black background, revealing the plant material fossilized inside.

Meet the Scientist Studying 'Fossil Snapshots' of Ancient Insect Life

Paleobiologist Scott Lakeram analyzes 300-million-year-old coal ball fossils to reveal prehistoric plant-insect interactions frozen in time

Emma Saaty | March 6, 2025

IMG_6197.jpeg

What a Drawerful of Dung Reveals About the Lives of Ground Sloths

For International Sloth Day, learn about the scientific clues preserved in petrified poop

Jack Tamisiea | October 20, 2023

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

As climate change alters ocean ecosystems, scientists look to marine mammal ecology and morphology to predict how recovering species will fare in an uncertain future

Emma Saaty | May 11, 2023

A large research vessel with a cell tower on top sails across a dark blue stretch of ocean that expands towards a paler blue sky along the horizon.

Smithsonian Scientists Unearth Signs of an Ancient Climate Calamity Buried Beneath the Seafloor

The research puts modern oceanic climate change in context

Jack Tamisiea | February 2, 2023
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

Smithsonian scientist's research illustrates how North American ecosystems are still reeling from the megafaunal extinction that closed the ice ages

Jack Tamisiea | September 23, 2022
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A Final Meal for the Ages

For World Mosquito Day, meet the “one in a million” fossil that proved fossilized blood is more than just science fiction

Jack Tamisiea | August 19, 2022
Close-up of a black and yellow hornet preserved on a pin

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

Jack Tamisiea | April 21, 2022
Cole had been using fossils in the National Museum of Natural History’s Springer collections for her research long before joining the museum as a curator. (Selina Cole, Smithsonian)

Meet the Scientist Using Fossils to Predict Future Extinctions

Selina Cole has dedicated her career to understanding the emergence and disappearance of species throughout Earth’s history.

Erin Malsbury | October 22, 2020
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