Stories

Welcome to Stories, a place to explore—and be inspired by—the wonder of our natural and cultural worlds.

Illustration of aquatic sloths chilling by the beach next to some penguins and sea lions during a sun set

Dive Into the Weird Miocene World of Aquatic Sloths

A new paper by an international team of researchers, including NHM's Curator of Marine Mammals, Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe, uncovers more secrets of aquasloths with one of the most complete skeletons ever discovered
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Dung beetle expedition Catalina Island crew

Join the Dung Beetle Hunt

Walk in the shoes of La Brea Tar Pits scientists who ventured to a less-trodden part of Catalina Island to scout for dung beetles in bison poop! 
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Coyote skull in the process of being cleaned by dermestid beetles

Behind the Scenes With The Flesh-Eating Beetles Preparing Museum Specimens

Meet the smallest and possibly most gruesome members of NHM's collection staff: flesh-eating Dermestid beetles. CONTENT WARNING: Specimen preparation is metal. There are a lot of images of dead animals in different states of decay and preparation below.
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Tarantula mating season, tarantula in terrarium
Naturalist

Creepy, Crawly, Courtship

It’s a spider lover's favorite time of year—tarantula mating season!
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Green butterfly icon

LA Nature Quest

Join LA Nature Quest this October and discover and share biodiversity across Los Angeles
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A collage of dinosaurs of various types

A Decade of Discoveries for 10 Years of Dino Fest

To mark 10 years of Dino Fest, we're looking back at 10 of the colossal discoveries by NHM researchers from the Age of Dinosaurs
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Bat Specimens from the Mammalogy Collection laid back to back with their specimen tags visible
Research and Collections

Digitized Mammals

How the new digitization project Ranges is unlocking the potential of NHM's Mammalogy Collection
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Latino woman in a white tank top and black capris standing next to a white lowrider car.

Riding Low, Rising High

Sandy Avila | Lady Lowriders
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Bridget Altman Paskil at Ghost Ranch New Mexico

More than a rock

Our intrepid colleague's dig diary from her fossil-finding expedition to Ghost Ranch, New Mexico.
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