Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

08/15/2023

Bivalves - they're what's for dinner.

Clams, cockles, oysters, mussels, and more are important members of marine ecosystems, primarily for their role in filtering water. But they also feature on our dinner plates. On the east coast, you might be familiar with quahogs, various oysters, and perhaps a blue mussel at the seafood counter. As seafood consumption increases across the world, finding and managing sustainable marine populations is crucial.

A new study by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History researcher Stewart Edie and his coauthors tracked down 720 species of bivalves that humans are known to consume, a dramatic increase to the previously identified 81 species. The majority of these newly identified species are large-bodied and live in shallow waters all across the world.

This research will be used to inform wildlife conservation and management decisions in the future by identify regions and species that are particularly vulnerable to extinction. Sustainable harvesting practices are critical to combat overfishing and prevent the repetition of historic collapses of oyster populations in areas like Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco Bay.

08/10/2023

Kings (and Queens) of the Savanna

Today is ! 🦁 These big cats have long captured the attention and curiosity of humans, so keep reading to learn more about these threatened and iconic animals.

1. Lions are more social than any other feline in the world. Their social groups, known as a pride, can be up to 40 members, made up mostly of adult females and their cubs.
2. Most lions live in southern Africa, but there is a small population in Gir Forest National Park in western India.
3. Lion cubs are born with rosettes and spots on their sandy coats, but these generally disappear as they mature.
4. A lion’s roar can be heard from up to 5 miles away. These ferocious calls are used to scare off intruders and warn the pride of potential danger.
5. Lions can sleep up to 20 hours a day. This is partially due to their carnivorous diet, as protein takes more time and energy to digest than other sources of nutrients.
6. The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute is home to four African lions—males Shaka and Jumbe and females Shera and Amahle.
7. Whisker patterns are like unique to each lion. The pattern of those dots is as different as our fingerprints. Scientists can use this to tell lions apart.
8. The tuft on the end of a lion’s tail can be used to communicate with other members of the pride, particularly when trekking through tall grasses on the savanna.

This specimen, USNM 589605, is currently on display in the Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals.

08/09/2023

This eerie scale worm has an important history! It was collected from the Puget Sound in Washington State in the 1940s and is the first species described by Dr. Marian Pettibone (1908–2003), the first female curator of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Invertebrate Zoology.

Pettibone named the worm Lepidasthenia berkeleyae after her colleague, Edith Berkeley, who also worked on this genus of worms. Unlike many of their heavily armored cousins who have large, overlapping scales protecting most of their bodies, Lepidasthenia species have smaller, more delicate, and more widely spaced scales, which became their namesake. The name translates to “scale” (lepís) and “sick, weak” (asthenḗs). At least this species still has its extendable, interlocking jaws, characteristic of most scale worms, that it uses to hunt its prey.

08/08/2023

The blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) is a beautiful dragonfly in the skimmer family with blue coloration. Don’t let their scientific name fool you . . . longipennis means “long wings” but really their wings are no longer than closely related species.

08/07/2023

Bet you’re reading this post with your finger on a touchscreen. 🤳

This sphalerite specimen looks pretty much the opposite of your ’s smooth, shiny touchscreen. But it contains the critical element that makes touchscreen technology possible: indium.

For more than a century after its discovery in the 1860s, indium was a solution in need of a problem.

Then chemists found that indium, when combined with tin and oxygen into the compound indium tin oxide, conducts electricity and is transparent —making it critical for solar cells and, later, electronic touchscreens.

How do they work? Your phone’s touchscreen is made of chemically reinforced glass coated in a thin, conductive indium-tin-oxide film and connected to a circuit. When you touch, your finger closes the circuit, and your phone responds.

This , remember: Everything in your phone comes from the Earth. And the most sustainable phone is the one you’ve got now—love it, repair it, use it longer.

Sphalerite (source of indium)

Banska Stiavnica, Slovensko, Slovakia

NMNH 123546-00

08/04/2023

Found in a canyon nearly 1,200 feet below the surface, Smithsonian researchers recently discovered a new species of black coral reminiscent of a deep-sea tumbleweed. Read more:

Collected from the deep waters off Puerto Rico, the species is a member of an enigmatic, and threatened, group of corals

08/02/2023

Simple, solid colors aren’t Christina Gebhard’s thing. On any given day, Gebhard, a museum specialist in the Division of Birds, is more likely to try and one-up the colors and patterns of the world’s most vibrant feathered aviators. 🐦

The proof is in these photos, which she captured during an inspection of the museum’s avian research collection. The goal of this particular endeavor was to ensure the collections remain pest-free and therefore intact for future generations of scientists. There were many, many drawers to open; a base layer of white paper on each shelf helps Gebhard and others quickly spot signs of unwanted bugs.

That simple white backdrop also causes the birds’ colors and patterns to pop and that is ultimately what inspired Gebhard to invent a game. The goal was to see if any of specimens on her daily inventories matched her attire; she dubbed it, “Match the Dress.” Here is a collection of some of her most winning matches.

Photo 1: Gebhard holding a tray with male Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris) belly-up (left) and belly-down (right). They are one of the most spectacularly colored birds in the United States. They breed in Texas, Mexico, and Florida and winter in the latter two locations, as well as the Caribbean.

Photo 2: The Purple-crowned Lorikeet (Glossopsitta porphyrocephala) is the perfect match for Gebhard’s vibrant dress. The species occurs across southern Australia, from Western Australia to Victoria. Found in open forests and woodlands, they feed primarily on nectar and pollen of flowering Eucalypts.

Photo 3: The Cinnamon becard (Pachyramphus cinnamomeus) wears its namesake color beautifully. With rufous above and paler cinnamon below, its brown is anything but boring. Unlike other becards, the sexes of this species share similar plumage, which was a great compliment to Gebhard’s corduroy polka dot skirt.

Photo 4: A wing of a Yellow-billed Stork (Mycteria ibis). This stately bird is found in Africa, in countries south of the Sahara Desert. Their coloration becomes more vivid during the breeding season, the plumage is colored pink on the upper wings and back; the ordinarily brown legs also turn bright pink; the bill becomes a deeper yellow and the face becomes a deeper red.

08/01/2023

Say cheese! 📸 Through the lens of wonder and expertise, the National Museum of Natural History's photography team captures the extraordinary, from tiny bat mandibles to colossal geodes. Read more:

From tiny bat jaws to colossal geodes, the photography team at the National Museum of Natural History has spent decades documenting the Smithsonian’s hidden wonders.

07/31/2023

“Sometimes I feel that I can hardly wait till the time comes to escape from city life, to the free air of the everlasting hills.” Mary Vaux Walcott to Charles Walcott, February 19th, 1912

Born in 1860, Mary Vaux Walcott really captured our Monday mood perfectly. Family trips to the Rocky Mountains in western Canada sparked her interest in botany and geology, and by her 20s she was an accomplished and active mountain climber, botanical illustrator, and photographer. 🌷🗻

Later in life, Walcott married Charles Doolittle Walcott, the 4th Secretary of the Smithsonian and an accomplished paleontologist. 400 of her illustrations were captured in the landmark 5-volume publication "North American Wild Flowers" published by the Smithsonian, between 1925 and 1929. Her love of exploring and travel extended into her 70s and she is memorialized by Mount Mary Vaux, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

Image Credit: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

07/28/2023

This takes us to island of Jamaica.

Known from several partial skeletons, this walking sea cow (Pezosiren portelli) was first described in 2001 and serves as the crucial evolutionary link between aquatic and terrestrial life. With four well-developed legs and a strong connection between the spine and pelvis, the animal was able to fully support its body weight on land. Heavy ribs, however, are a feature still displayed by modern manatees and dugongs and serve as a counterweight against the natural buoyancy caused by large lungs. Most likely, this ancient sea cow lived a hippopotamus-like amphibious lifestyle, with the majority of its life spent in the water.

This specimen, a cast of the fossil USNM 617471, can be seen on display in .

07/27/2023

Tiny but Mighty

Phytoplankton, or single-celled photosynthetic drifters, are responsible for the oxygen we breathe, glowing and sometimes dangerous waters, and can be an incredible resource for humans, thanks to their antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids, and use in pigments, biofuels, and bioplastics. These tiny but mighty plant-like organisms are the primary energy source in aquatic water bodies, both saline and fresh, and play an enormous role in sustaining life on Earth.

Rapid growth of phytoplankton in a body of water, however, can inflict harm on the environment, ecosystem, and the economy. The negative impacts of harmful algal blooms (HABs), more commonly known as “red tides,” include dangerously depleted oxygen supplies in bodies of water, which lead to massive fish kill events and marine mammal deaths.

Despite the name, HABs range in colors from rusty orange to green, depending on the pigment of the cells and local conditions, though many coastal HABs appear as large, dark-red streaks and plumes in the water. Some HAB-forming species are bioluminescent, so by night, HABs may glow bright blue in water that has been disturbed by waves crashing on the shore or swimming fish. The HABs in the first image is a bioluminescent bloom, photographed during the day.

Scientists like Department of Botany summer intern Savannah Mapes are working to better understand phytoplankton and creation of these harmful blooms. A student at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Mapes’ work focuses on the life cycle of Alexandrium monilatum, a bioluminescent species of dinoflagellate that produces toxic blooms in the lower Chesapeake Bay. For , we say thank you to her and all the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History interns that are learning and working in the museum!

07/26/2023

Ever wonder how an exhibit like Cellphones: gets built? Mountmaker Natalie Rey is an integral part of the team that makes it happen. Keep reading to learn more about Natalie and her .

📚 What do you like most about your work? Always learning. Whether it’s picking up new skills, solving a particularly tricky mounting problem, or learning about the incredible objects in our collection and their significance.

🐥 Most challenging object that you had to build a mount for? Most challenging object that you had to build a mount for? In general, the trickiest mounts for me always seem to be the smallest ones. A tiny gem, or delicate hummingbird bone.

❓ What questions do you ask yourself when you're beginning to work on mounting an object? The first questions would be - “How will it be viewed?” “Are there important features that need to be more prominent?” “What is the safest method to display that object?”

🔥 Top must-have materials you keep in your shop? Brass and my torch!

The timelapse above shows Natalie using some of her many talents to install dozens of objects on the "Before/Because of Cellphones" wall. You can see her work when you visit Cellphones: .

07/24/2023

Quick check: How’s your battery right now? 🔋🔋

This lepidolite mineral sample contains the element lithium, which is a critical ingredient in nearly all cellphone batteries. Super-light lithium is the most energy-dense of all elements, meaning it stores a ton of energy for its weight.

Most lithium is mined via brine extraction. Miners drill deep into the ground, pumping mineral-rich brine to the surface. The brine evaporates in a series of massive pools for nearly a year. It’s filtered many times to extract pure lithium salts, primarily in Australia, Chile, and China.

It's a process that can have harsh environmental repercussions, including contaminated groundwater. That’s why research is underway to extract battery-quality lithium from byproducts of other chemical mining processes within the United States.

This , remember: Everything in your phone comes from the Earth. And the most sustainable phone is the one you’ve got now—love it, repair it, use it longer.

Lepidolite (lithium aluminum silicate)

California, United States

NMNH 88526-01

On view in, Cellphone:

07/20/2023

You know octopus and squid can rapidly change colors, but did you know fish can, too?

Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) like this one can drastically change colors between shades of white, red, and brown within milliseconds thanks in part to their “skin vision,” skin that is sensitive to and can detect light. According to researchers from Duke University, their skin can detect moving shadows and other light fluctuations associated with the time of day or cloud cover. The split-second color change is due to chromatophores, pigment-containing cells that can rapidly change colors when activated by light. Like octopus, hogfish change colors to hide from predators or ambush prey and might take on a bright contrasting pattern to look threatening or attract a mate.

MarineGEO’s Emily Anderson snapped this series of images in rapid succession as the hogfish approached a goby cleaning station, where the little fish wait to clean fish and get a meal of parasites in return. The fish was white and stationary at the cleaning station but changed to the reddish brown quickly. This color change may have been a signal to the gobies that the hogfish wanted to be cleaned.

These photos were taken during a visit to the Smithsonian's Carrie Bow Cay Field Station on the Belize Barrier Reef in December 2022. MarineGEO is a growing, global network of partners, led by the Smithsonian, working together to understand how coastal marine life and ecosystems work so we can keep them working in a changing world.

07/17/2023

How do you represent yourself in emoji form? 👤 👤 👤

This is 8-year-old Maia’s emoji. She recently created it for a class assignment that asked students to draw upon their family’s history and cultural heritage to design an emoji. On the back, Maia explained, “My emoji, in a hat that is plaid and I have the Haiti flag behind me. It means a lot to me because my mom is from Haiti and my dad is a little Scottish and so am I.”

Maia’s dad, Joshua Bell, is a Smithsonian cultural anthropologist and the curator of our new exhibition, Cellphone: . The show explores many narratives, including how these devices reflect and shape our identities.

The exhibit features more than 30 people using their cellphones to change the world. One of these people is Rayouf Alhumedhi. When she was 15, Alhumedhi wanted an emoji that looked like her: a girl wearing a hijab. But there was no such emoji.

So Alhumedhi designed one, and proposed it to the Unicode Consortium, the organization that creates emojis. Alhumedhi’s emoji quickly gained a following, and Unicode approved her proposal and released the new emoji to the public in 2017.

Visit Cellphone: to learn more about Alhumedhi, as well as other creators and innovators who are changing the ways we use our phones to represent ourselves and the world around us.

Image 3: From Cooper Hewitt's collections: Guidance images, Person With Headscarf Emoji, 2016; Concept by Rayouf Alhumedhi (Saudi, born 2001); Graphic design by Aphelandra Messer (American, born 1993), with Jennifer 8. Lee (American, born 1976), Emojination (San Francisco, California, USA, founded 2015), and Alexis Ohanian (American, born 1983); svg and png files; Gift of Emojination; 2020-1-1

07/14/2023

This fossil is considered the earliest-known member of the family Equidae, but you wouldn't want to saddle up and go for a ride to kick off your .

The diminutive Eohippus stood between 12 and 24 inches tall and lived throughout North America and Europe from around 55 million years ago to about 45 million years ago. Known as the Paleogene, this era saw mammals evolving in new ecosystems and environments. Many modern and familiar groups like rodents, primates, and rhinos find their roots here.

Over the course of millions of years these small, dog-sized browsers - sometimes known as the "dawn horse" - evolved to larger sizes and diversified into a range of habitats. Today's modern horses can trace their roots all the way to the Eohippus.

Learn more about this fossil and dozens of others during your next visit to .

07/13/2023

A sea creature’s body cavity stuffed with nearly a dozen miniature sea stars, like a star-shaped nesting doll, was not what Christopher Mah was expecting to find when examining museum specimens collected by a 1960s Antarctic research vessel. Mah has been sifting through these specimens for years, but recently discovered six new species in the collection in one week. Read more about these and other discoveries here:

Museum researcher describes several new species from specimens collected decades ago from Antarctica

07/12/2023

An empty museum is a rare sight during the busy summer season, so early mornings at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History are used to keep the museum in tip-top shape for the thousands (and thousands) of visitors that we welcome each day.

07/11/2023

that lobster was once regarded with such distaste that it was ground to bits for fertilizer?

Its rise is popularity wasn’t until the 1870s when tourists from New York and Washington discovered this tender, succulent treat. Helped by a new canning industry that allowed shipping of perishable items outside of the cool rocky shores of the lobster’s Atlantic home, the lobster gained widespread popularity and prices soared. Nowadays, the Red Lobster (Homarus americanus) is a popular menu item at seafood restaurants, with lobster rolls an essential summer splurge for anyone spending time on the New England coast. 🦞

07/10/2023

Everything in your comes from the Earth.

The mineral specimens found in our new Cellphone: exhibition represent the 65 different elements found in the average cellphone. Thanks to raw materials mined from Arkansas and Alaska to Mozambique and Madagascar, cellphones contain more than half of the elements in the entire periodic table. These materials connect you to a global web of people and places.

But let’s start at the beginning…the very beginning.

Everything on Earth is composed of remnants of age-old stellar explosions. The chemical building blocks of our planet and its life are laid out in the Periodic Table of the Elements. There are 118 known elements, which take many forms. The average cellphone contains 65. (And our bodies contain 24!)

Our technology is linked to the natural world. We can’t separate the two.

This , remember: the most sustainable phone is the one you’ve got now—love it, repair it, use it longer.

Image: Copper mine, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Fairphone, CC BY-SA 2.0
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fairphone/35456682034/

07/06/2023

Octopus appreciation post! Our Smithsonian MarineGEO colleagues never tire of octopus encounters. Here are 8 interesting facts about one of the most beautiful and intelligent marine invertebrates:

1. The name “octopus” comes from the Greek word októpus, which means “eight foot.”
2. Baby octopuses are called larvae (1st image). When they hatch from their eggs, they are incredibly small—about the size of a pea! They don’t stay tiny for long and start doubling their weight every 2-3 months until they are fully grown. They likely grow so fast since an octopus' lifespan is very short. Both wild and captive octopuses do not generally live longer than 5 years, with many living just one year.
3. An octopus does not have tentacles, but arms. While these terms are often used interchangeably, these body parts are actually very different. Arms are generally shorter, more flexible, and stronger than tentacles. Also, arms are covered in suckers—which can function like suction cups—whereas tentacles only have them at the end of their limbs.
4. The majority of an octopus’ neurons are not found in its arms, not its head. As a result, arms can help an octopus solve problems.
5. An octopus has not one, not two, but three hearts! 💙💙💙
6. The species Vulgaris is the most common species of octopus and is found in oceans around the world.
7. Octopuses are known as masters of disguise (2nd image). They often change their shape and color to mimic other marine animals, utilizing special cells called chromatophores. These cells have a flexible sac that is filled with pigment and an octopus uses muscles to squeeze and contract these sacs.
8. Octopus blood is blue. While humans rely on an iron-based oxygen transport system, cephalopods evolved a copper-based system, which is the source of the blue color.

MarineGEO is a growing, global network of research partners, led by the Smithsonian, working together to understand how coastal marine life and ecosystems work in our changing world.

07/04/2023

We're taking advantage of colors to talk biology. The Northern Cardinal and Snow Bunting are sexually dimorphic birds, meaning between individuals of the same species, the male and female forms are markedly different. In birds, this is often seen in size and plumage. It is easy to spot a red male Cardinal, whereas their muted brown female counterparts camouflage against trees and brush. For the Diademed Tanager—the blue birds shown here—males and females look more alike to us, but the crowns of males actually reflect more light to birds’ eyes.

07/03/2023

"I wanted to pick something that was representative of what mining companies pull out of the ground and crush up to extract particular elements that go into cellphones." — Mike Wise, Research Geologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | Cellphone: | | 📱📱📱

The story behind the specimens at the center of the museum’s new exhibition “Cellphone: Unseen Connections”

07/01/2023

Happy ! This year, we’re celebrating Dr. Marian Pettibone (1908-2003), the first female curator in the museum’s Department of Invertebrate Zoology and the Smithsonian’s first Curator of Polychaetes (aka marine worms). Pettibone described more than 170 new species during her career and was a world expert on scale worms, like the one pictured here.

This deep-sea scale worm, Branchipolynoe symmytilida, was named and described by Pettibone in 1984. It was first documented swimming from the “mouths” of giant vent mussels by researchers on the submersible DSV Alvin in 1979. When Robert D. Ballard and J. Frederick Grassle explored the newly discovered hydrothermal vent environments along the Galapagos Rift, their submersible arm bumped into a bed of mussels and startled the worms from their hosts. The worm was so unique, Pettibone had to create a new genus to place it on the tree of life. She described two of the now nine known species in the genus.

Branchipolynoe symmytilida evolved to survive in an environment lacking oxygen and void of sunlight: the deep sea. It owes its scarlet coloring to a specially adapted type of hemoglobin (an oxygen-binding molecule) that attracts and stores oxygen extremely efficiently. This, along with its enlarged, branching branchiae—gill-like structures used to breathe—helps these animals survive in the deep. Their color likely camouflages them from predators: no red light penetrates the deep ocean, making red organisms appear dark or black. Being red is like wearing an invisibility cloak and is a common survival tactic in deep-sea creatures.

Scientists speculate that this worm is parasitic. It has been documented living in the mantel cavity of the local giant deep-sea vent mussels, surviving by eating the gills and other tissues of its bivalve host. As the mussels don’t die from this, it is deemed parasitic instead of predatory.

Photo: A live specimen of Branchipolynoe symmytilida collected from a depth of 2216 m (7270 ft) near the southern East Pacific Rise (37°47S, 110°54 W). Photo: Greg Rouse, Scripps Oceanography.

06/30/2023

We're diving into the Devonian (and beyond) this . Ammonites evolved back then, some 420 million years ago. They were top predators, feeding on fishes, mollusks, arthropods, and other ocean creatures.

Ammonites likely used keen eyesight and many arms to capture prey and feed it into a strong, crushing beak. Some were as small as a thumbnail, while the largest measured over eight feet (2.5 meters) in diameter. They relied on a chamber shell, just like the nautiloids, which likely helped with buoyancy control and to withstand the pressure of deep water.

Alas, they did not survive the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. Thanks to paleontologist and the fossil record, they have not been lost to history. Look for some the next time you visit .

06/28/2023

the meteorite Nakhla was observed to fall near Cairo, Egypt, in 1911. For decades, its claim to fame was based on a mistake. A description in an early paper caused people to believe that Nakhla struck and killed a dog, an event for which there is no proof. Further, it would be a remarkable coincidence if this meteorite—liberated from its home world nearly 12 million years ago—encountered a dog, whose wolf ancestors separated from foxes 12 million years ago!

Shortly after that fall, the Smithsonian obtained a specimen from the Geological Survey of Egypt. But, like all specimens of Nakhla, this one would keep its best secret for more than 70 years.

In 1983, scientists studying a meteorite that was found 4 years earlier in Antarctica made a remarkable discovery. A group of meteorites, including Nakhla, contained gases that matched measurement made by the Viking Landers in 1976. Nakhla was from Mars! Even more important, scientists found minerals formed by water. For the first time, we could study in our laboratories on Earth the water that scientists had argued carved ancient rivers on the red planet.

Scientists at the Smithsonian, including Cari Corrigan in the Department of Mineral Sciences, have studied Nakhla to finally understand the history of this tight-lipped messenger from space.

06/26/2023

Some science news for you to digest this Monday morning, courtesy of Briana Pobiner, a paleoanthropologist with the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program.

Telltale marks on a bone from an early human’s leg could be the earliest evidence of cannibalism

06/23/2023

Our newest exhibition is now open! Curated by Smithsonian cultural anthropologist Joshua Bell, “Cellphone: Unseen Connections” examines the intersection of culture, technology, and nature. 🤳🌏📱📶

“Cellphones are one of the most significant technological creations in the annals of humankind,” says Kirk Johnson, the Sant Director at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

For cultural anthropologists like Joshua Bell, the Smithsonian’s curator of globalization and the curator of this exhibition, these mobile devices are endlessly fascinating. “Cellphones allow cultural anthropologists to explore the material, social, and linguistic dimensions of human lives at the local and global scale,” says Bell. “And thus, think about how we are interconnected through electronics.”

The exhibition delves into those connections by telling the stories of the unseen global network of people, labor, and infrastructure. And it also underscores, “how our technology wouldn’t be possible without the Earth’s resources,” says exhibit developer Christyna Solhan.

One centerpiece of the exhibition is a case showcasing the roughly 65 elements that are used to make the average cellphone. Each element is represented by a mineral specimen from the Smithsonian’s research collections.

In addition to more than 750 objects on display, the exhibition features two games. One focuses on infrastructure and how to sustain a call while on a hypothetical journey, and the other game explores cellphone repair.

Part of Bell’s research, conducted in collaboration with colleagues at George Washington University, has focused on cellphone repair vendors and understanding how people fix these devices that so many of us rely upon. “Doing this work gave us a glimpse of the global supply chain and more insights into how cellphones are an integral part of our daily lives,” says Bell.

The exhibition and its educational programming and national outreach efforts are made possible through the charitable generosity of lead sponsor Qualcomm with major support by T-Mobile.