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Mexico

On display in Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology, the pictorial manuscript is opened to a folio that depicts eight Indigenous communities preparing for their voyage to Tenochtitlan, the eventual Aztec capital.

A Rare Aztec Codex Detailing the Rise and Fall of Tenochtitlan Returns to Mexico for the First Time in Nearly Two Centuries

The artifact, among the most prized visual accounts of Aztec history, will be on display in Mexico City for three months

In the new study, researchers analyzed fossilized teeth, including two from Thomas the T. rex.

Tyrannosaurus Rex Was a Warm-Blooded Dinosaur, With a Body Temperature Similar to That of Humans, Study Suggests

A tooth analysis hints that the fearsome predator ran at a toasty 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Maintaining that internal temperature may have allowed it to inhabit a range stretching from modern-day Alaska to Mexico during the Cretaceous period

Pygmy raccoons live only on Mexico's Cozumel Island.

These Adorable, Critically Endangered Pygmy Raccoons in Cozumel Are Teaching One Another to Turn Trash Into Toy Balls

The observations offer rare evidence of a skill being passed among raccoons. But the work also highlights the effects of human pollution at the popular tourist destination

A hawksbill sea turtle munches away on a sponge near Juno Beach.

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Journey Under the Sea With 20 Amazing Photos of Marine Life, From Seahorses to Manta Rays to Orcas to Turtles

These Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest images feature the captivating creatures that live beneath the waves

Diego Maradona and Peter Shilton both jumped for the contested ball when the Argentine star infamously knocked it into the goal with his left hand.

The Soccer Ball Used for Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ World Cup Goal Sells for $3.35 Million at Auction

Despite its role in one of the most famous games in soccer history, the historic piece of sports memorabilia fell short of its $10 million pre-sale estimate

Diego Rivera’s private collection of pre-Columbian art at the Anahuacalli Museum, which expanded and reopened in 2021.

Stunning Antiquities and Frida Kahlo’s Home Are Just Some of the Offerings That Have Bolstered Mexico City’s Fantastic Array of Museums

The ancient capital has plenty of artwork and fossils, if that’s what you like. Or tour the writing rooms of a Nobel winner, the fortified home of an exiled Russian revolutionary and towers of skulls

A new study documents two incidents of orcas breaking sunfish into pieces.

Video Captures Orcas Ramming a Sunfish So Hard It Explodes. The Mysterious Behavior Might Be a Form of Play or Juvenile Care

In two incidents documented in Mexico’s Gulf of California, orcas worked together to blast sunfish into smithereens after they had killed the enormous animals

Researchers found carved stone monuments on the site.

Cool Finds

Deep in the Mexican Jungle, Archaeologists Discovered a Lost Maya City That May Yield Clues About the Civilization Just Before It Collapsed

Researchers hacked through more than three miles of vegetation to get to the site, which lies out of bounds of familiar logging tracks. There, they found unique carved stelae and altars

The adult male fox was evaluated by veterinarians and released three days later into the Laguna Colombia State Reserve, where conservationist Rafael Chacón snapped additional photos.

See the First-Ever Photographs of Cozumel’s Elusive Dwarf Fox, One of the Rarest Canids in the World

No one had seen the creatures in more than two decades, leading scientists to wonder whether they’d gone extinct. That changed in September 2023

The Leonora Carrington exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris

No Mere Muse, This Influential Surrealist Artist and Feminist Gets Her Due in a New Biopic and Art Exhibitions

Leonora Carrington’s life and work are celebrated with the new film “Leonora in the Morning Light.” Meanwhile, an exhibition at the Freud Museum showcases for the first time artwork she created inside a psychiatric hospital

This Socorro dove recently hatched at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Conservationists have been undertaking a decades-long effort to breed the extinct-in-the-wild species and one day reintroduce it to its native Socorro Island in Mexico.

New, Rare Dove Hatchlings Are a ‘Source of Hope’ for the Extinct-in-the-Wild Birds and a Step Forward in the Ambitious Project to Save Them

The Socorro dove has not been recorded in the wild since 1972, but that could change within only a few years, conservationists say, thanks to a long-term reintroduction effort

Carlos Álvarez as Diego Rivera and Isabel Leonard as Frida Kahlo in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Sing Themselves to Death in an Opera at the Met Inspired by Greek Mythology and Mexican Magical Realism

A new production of the all-Spanish opera “El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego” takes the stage in New York City this week, while a partner exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art explores the art behind the opera

The original King Taco location in the Los Angeles Cypress Park neighborhood is now a historic-cultural monument.

A Couple From Mexico Became Soft Taco Pioneers in Los Angeles 50 Years Ago. Now, Their Restaurant Is a Landmark

Raúl and Lupe Martinez opened King Taco and served up soft corn tortillas like they remembered from home. The rest is—now officially—history, thanks to a vote from the Los Angeles City Council

This colonnaded open hall—unearthed in the Maya city of Ucanal in 2024—may have been a council house.

Cool Finds

In Times of Trouble, the Maya Rejected Divine Kingship. This Newly Discovered Public Building Reveals How the Transition to Shared Power Unfolded

Archaeologists in northern Guatemala unearthed a colonnaded open hall that may have served as a council house, where local leaders and everyday people met to discuss political issues

The altar was found in Hidalgo, Mexico.

This Millennium-Old Sacrificial Altar in Mexico Belonged to a Civilization That Thrived Before the Aztecs

Surrounded by human skulls, the artifact was uncovered at the site of the Toltec people’s capital in central Mexico ahead of construction of a new railway project

Frida Kahlo painted many self-portraits, including this piece, "Self-Portrait With Necklace," from 1933.   

Can Frida Kahlo Leave Mexico? Plans to Relocate a Trove of Paintings by the Famous Artist Spark a Heated Debate

Nearly 400 cultural heritage professionals signed an open letter protesting plans to move a collection featuring artworks by the renowned Mexican painter out of her home country

The intact cannonball weighs four pounds.

Archaeologists Discover an Intact Cannonball From the Battle of the Alamo—One Day Before the Pivotal Conflict’s 190th Anniversary

The projectile is made of bronze, which suggests it was fired by the Mexican Army during the siege leading up to the 1836 battle

The owl symbolizes night and death in Zapotec culture.

Cool Finds

This Carved, Painted Zapotec Tomb Is Mexico’s Most Important Archaeological Discovery in a Decade

The tomb features the carvings of a huge owl head and at least three probable ancestors

Frida on a White Bench, New York by Nickolas Muray surrounded by merchandise inspired by the image

Frida Kahlo’s Image Is on Paintings, Posters, Socks and Sanitary Pads. How Did Fridamania Come to Dominate Popular Culture?

An exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston features paintings by Kahlo, works by artists she inspired and consumer products featuring her self-portraits

Fascinating finds unveiled in 2025 ranged from an Auguste Rodin sculpture to a ring bearing the likeness of the goddess Venus Victrix.

Cool Finds

Seventy-Two Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2025, From a Luxury Spa in Pompeii to a Pair of World War I Messages in a Bottle

The year’s most exciting discoveries included the site where a young George Washington stopped a friendly fire incident, the missing torso of a Buddha statue and a hidden Picasso painting

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