Carnegie Museum of Natural History

06/01/2026

Happy National Dinosaur Day! 🦕

Enjoy a few highlights from Kamin Hall of Dinosaurs 🦖

And if you want to visit these very old friends, join us for DinoFest on June 13 from 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. https://carnegiemnh.org/event/dinofest-2/

Photos by Joshua Franzos, Treehouse Media

05/29/2026

Spend time with us this weekend to see a small fraction of the 22 million objects and specimens from around the world in the museum's care. Explore "The Stories We Keep: Bringing the World to Pittsburgh" to learn why it's all here and the purpose of natural history museum collections. https://carnegiemnh.org/explore/stories-we-keep-pittsburgh/

05/27/2026

Thank you to everyone who participated in a very successful City Nature Challenge 2026! The Pittsburgh Region broke all previous records for number of observations in nature and number of species, with more than 60% of the observations reaching Research Grade on iNaturalist.org. These efforts directly benefit scientists and research around the world. Here are some highlights:

Global stats: Participants from 754 cities in 61 countries documented more than 76,000 species for a total of 3 million observations! https://citynaturestats.com/

Pittsburgh Region stats: 648 people made more than 12,800 observations and documented 2,000 species, with 729 people making 22,085 identifications. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-pittsburgh-region?tab=stats

This year, local participants observed more than 30 species that had never been documented in our region before, including plants, lichen, and insects. On the global scale, 70 new species across the world were documented during the challenge that had never been documented on iNaturalist.

The region’s top observer and identifier is our own Collection Manager of Botany Bonnie Isaac! Bonnie made an astounding 870 observations of more than 530 species. Bonnie’s efforts account for 25% of the species diversity documented in our region.

--
Photos:
Spicebush Swallowtail by Bonnie Isaac via iNaturalist
Orange Atoms by Daniel D. Brown via iNaturalist (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

05/22/2026

We’re thrilled to announce more Behind the Scenes Tours!

On June 13, visitors ages 18+ are invited to join Dr. Matt Lamanna, Mary R. Dawson Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, or Dr. Sarah Davis, Collection Manager of Paleobiology, for a tour of the Big Bone Room—home to a fraction of the museum’s 90,000 fossil vertebrates.

Spots are extremely limited. Purchase your ticket today! $50 per person. https://bit.ly/42U6GWn

These Behind the Scenes Tours are part of DinoFest. We encourage you to enjoy the museum and DinoFest before and after your tour!

Photo credit: John Schisler, courtesy of Carnegie Magazine

« All Events Behind the Scenes Tour: Big Bone Room June 13, 10:30 am - 11:30 am|Recurring Event (See all)One event on June 13, 2026 at 11:30 amOne event on June 13, 2026 at 2:00 pmOne event on June 13, 2026 at 3:30 pm Event Navigation « DinoFest Storytime at the Museum » Photo credit: John Schisl...

05/20/2026

Outdoor excursions, intriguing explorations, and creative crafts await as we countdown to the start of summer camps! Campers can investigate creepy crawly science in Bug Out Week, discover the natural world around them in Nature Week, and plunge into aquatic experiments during Water Week. If you’re still finalizing your family’s summer plans, check out the line-up and get your camper signed up today! https://camps.artandnaturalhistory.org/

05/16/2026

DinoFest is one month away! Get ready to join us for a full day of fossil fun on Saturday, June 13th! Preview the schedule below and get the full details on our website. DinoFest is included with purchase of museum admission. https://bit.ly/3Pq7bEk

🦖 Scientific Illustration Demonstration: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., 12:30–1:30 p.m.
⛏️ Livestream Dino Dig: 12:00–1:00 p.m., 2:00–3:00 p.m.
🎤 Keynote Speaker, Dr. James Napoli: 1:00–2:00 p.m.
🦕 Ongoing Family-Friendly Activities: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
💛 Conversations with Researchers: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
🛍️ Carnegie Museum Store: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

05/14/2026

Although a rare occurrence, it's exciting to recapture a bird that a someone else banded. At Powdermill, only a handful of birds each year were banded somewhere else (what banders refer to as a "foreign recap"). Today, we caught an American Redstart that was banded at The Hilliardton Marsh Research & Education Centre in May 2025. Hilliardton Marsh is ~520 miles north of Powdermill in Ontario!

Our first clue that this bird was a foreign recap is that he was banded on his right leg - Powdermill banders put bands on birds' left legs. The band prefix (3020) was also unusual and we were pretty sure we had never had a strand of bands with that prefix. Sure enough, that bird was not in our database, so we submitted the record to the Bird Banding Lab's reportband.gov portal and immediately found out where he was initially banded.

American Redstarts breed at Powdermill - in fact, they breed across much of the eastern part of the continent and Canada! This particular bird, pictured here, has black and bright orange plumage that tells us he is a male that hatched before the summer of 2025.

All birds are caught and banded under a federal permit issued by the Bird Banding Lab, part of the US Geological Survey.

05/12/2026

If you know a child whose favorite stop at the museum is Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems, check out the lineup for Geology Week, July 20-24, featuring camps that explore rocks, minerals, fossils, and more with hands-on activities and experiments. Campers will dig into the science of caves, volcanoes, and unique rock formations, learn the basics of geology field work, build their own collections, and uncover secrets of the natural world.

Sign your camper up for Geology Week: https://bit.ly/4dmcBIH

Explore other exciting themes on our camp calendar! https://bit.ly/3FjRskN

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day!

We’ve selected a few flowers from our herbarium, all collected in the month of May, in honor of mothers and mother figures.

The flowers:
Delphinium bicolor, Little Larkspur, collected May 10, 1932
Caltha palustris, Yellow Marsh Marigold, collected May 2, 1898
Geranium maculatum, Wild Geranium, collected May 13, 1933

05/07/2026

After more than 40 years of memories and discovery, Polar World: Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life will close on June 28.

Generations of visitors have experienced this exhibition on tours, field trips, and independent visits—and while it’s never easy to say goodbye, this moment marks the beginning of something new. We’re preparing an exciting new exhibition, and we can’t wait to share the details with you soon.

Please join us for a special farewell weekend June 26–28 with hands-on Arctic-themed activities throughout our anthropology and wildlife halls. https://bit.ly/3RrubU1

--
Photo credit: Joshua Franzos, Treehouse Media