Invertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

01/09/2025

Some Comb Jellies what for relaxin'!

01/08/2025

ACORN WORMS! Happy !

01/06/2025

! Dumbo octopus!

12/29/2024

STUNNING Antarctic jelly.. possibly Periphylla.. but quite a visual!

12/20/2024

SEA PIG! Scotoplanes forever!

12/13/2024

Dr. Mah, sea star expert, has represented the department in Chile at the Species Discovery Workshop along with scientists from 6 countries studying deep-sea invertebrates for the last two weeks!

And that’s a wrap. 🎉 Smiley scientists celebrate the end of the Species Discovery Workshop in Chile!

Over the last 2 weeks the team have analysed over 1,500 individual specimens, including:
🦞 300 squat lobsters
🐌 over 200 sea snails
⭐ 160 sea stars
🌟 738 brittle stars
🐚 60 urchins

With lots of potential new species in the pipeline, we're looking forward to sharing some exciting updates from the DNA sequencing results next year!

Thank you to Ocean Census Science Network scientists Enrique, Peter, Chris, Tim and Kirill, the team and our hosts and 🌍🙏

12/08/2024

Our very own Dr. Chris Mah, an expert on sea stars, in addition to a team of international deep-sea invertebrate zoology experts from 4 countries are currently in Coquimbo, Chile working on newly discovered species collected by the R/V FALKOR from deep-sea habitats in the South Pacific! Supported by the new Ocean Census initiative!

11/25/2024

The loss of a respected and smart man in our Fishes department. He knew his stuff and could always tell a great story in off hours. We'll miss you Dave. 😢

Today we mourn the loss of our friend and colleague Dave Johnson, Curator of Fishes.

Dave was a world-renowned comparative morphologist and ichthyologist who joined our Fish Division's curatorial staff in 1983. He was by nature a collaborator and had many co-authors worldwide.

Dave’s extraordinary scholarly contributions were celebrated by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in 2003 when he received the Society’s Robert H. Gibbs, Jr. Memorial Award for Excellence in Systematic Ichthyology. Dave also served the museum in numerous ways including as Chair of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology.

He was a man of strong opinions which sometimes masked an even larger heart. He was committed to this place, his field, and its future. He served as a mentor to staff – long-time and new, young and old – and took particular interest in ensuring that future generations had the support they needed to be successful. This included recently partnering with his friend and colleague Bruce Collette to endow a permanent curatorial position in the Fish Division.

We’re going to miss Dave a lot.

11/25/2024

Cool story about citizen science! worms amidst the sea horses! featuring our very own Karen Osborn!

Photographs of seahorses taken by scuba divers revealed evidence of a long-lost species of marine worm that hasn’t been seen since the mid-1950s, scientists say.

11/24/2024

Some incredible close up video of the swimming sea cucumber Enypniastes whose name translates to "dreamer"!

11/20/2024

A new publication from the MNHN featuring a NEW (and possibly last) monograph on south-west Indian stylasterid corals by our very own Dr. Steve CAIRNS! CHECK IT OUT! (and there's chirostylid squat lobsters also!)

[ ] 📚 Just published in series # of Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle ⤵

➡️ 🇬🇧 Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos volume 34
Deep-Sea Chirostylids and Stylasterids from South-West Indian Ocean

✒ Keiji BABA & Stephen D. CAIRNS
🔗 https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/
📰 Publié le 07 novembre 2024

➡ "Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos, a continuation of Résultats des Campagnes MUSORSTOM, is a series dedicated to the inventory and description of the deep-sea fauna of the world, with special emphasis on the most extensive, yet remote and least explored, region —the Indo-West Pacific. The comprehensive series of marine expeditions undertaken by the French Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) continue to collect many new, strange and sometimes colourful crustaceans.

The present volume is the second volume dedicated to Alain Crosnier who passed away on 18 February 2021. Madagascar and more generally the South Western part of the Indian Ocean had a special place in his heart. From 1970 to 1976, he directed the ORSTOM Centre in Nosy Be in Madagascar where he explored the seabed to a depth of more than 1,000 m, thus discovering new resources and new species..."

11/18/2024

SUPER GIANT amphipods from the great deeps of the South Pacific! Courtesy of our colleagues at NIWA!