by Debra Wilson Have you ever gazed up at the sky and noticed a cloud that looks like a face, or an animal, or an object? You can apply the same concept when you visit Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems! Many minerals on display have nicknames because of how they resemble certain animals, objects, or even characters from movies or TV shows. As you walk through the exhibits, let your imagination wander and search for minerals that look like things. Here are some to get you started. “The Flag” – Silver in the Native Elements case of the Systematic Mineral Collection Photo credit: Allen Saalburg ..read more

by Pat McShea The title of this post, “Life Lessons from Dead Birds,” is a phrase I use to summarize my long career as an educator at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. For more than 38 years I managed what is now called the Learning Collection, an enormous assemblage of artifacts, rocks, minerals, fossils, and preserved plants and animals, all dedicated to regional educational use through loans to teachers and other educators. The bird-focus of the summary phrase reflects both the numerous avian materials in the Learning Collection and my preference to use some of those items whenever I had ..read more

by Jessica Romano Every spring people all over the world join in the City Nature Challenge, a global effort to safely document and identify nature through the free and easy-to-use iNaturalist app. For the seventh consecutive year, Carnegie Museum of Natural History staff were among the participants taking on the challenge in and around the Pittsburgh region – and in 2024, the results were record-breaking! Totals for regional participants, identifiers, observations, and number of species hit their highest in the history of the challenge, thanks to a combination of warm, dry spring weather and d ..read more

Or, Crepidula fornicata say, “Trans Rights!” …if they don’t get eaten by their siblings first. by Sabrina Spiher Robinson A pair of slipper snails seen from below. Image credit: Ecomare/Sytske Dijksen, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons A stack of Crepidula fornicata, grown together (with a little chiton, another type of mollusk, hanging out on the top of the family). Image credit: User Lamiot on fr.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 1.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0, via Wikimedia Commons Slipper snails, Crepidula forn ..read more

by Nathália Susin Streher Do you ever wonder what made you pursue your dreams in life? When I ask myself this question, it inevitably takes me back to my childhood and the indelible memories that growing up in the most biodiverse country in the world left on me. From the diversity of fruit trees and the tiny animals that crawled them in my backyard to the varied ecosystems in the surrounding areas, living in Brazil has shaped my perception of nature and sparked a singular curiosity about the variety of forms and interactions I could observe. As the little scientist in me grew up, fueled by the ..read more

by Timothy A. Pearce and Rachel Thomas Beckel What do we mean when we say we have type specimens in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) collections?   Type specimens are (usually) the specimen(s) a person describing a new species looks at as they write the description (it’s this tall, this wide, this color, sculptured with bumps like this, etc.) and type specimens are the official name bearers for the whole species.  There are many kinds of type specimens, but the most important kind is the holotype. Paratypes (other specimens the original describer believes are the sa ..read more

Albert D. Kollar, Collection Manager of Invertebrate Paleontology Last year, when Albert Kollar, Collection Manager of Invertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, was planning for, and later recovering from, knee surgeries, it was common to hear people wish him well by saying, “You’ll be back on the outcrop soon.” In the wake of his untimely death last week, those wishes are worth examining for all they capture of Albert’s generous and long-standing sharing of geologic knowledge. Outcrop, as anyone who participated in one of his geology-focused hikes already knows, refers ..read more

by Jessica Romano As the seasons change from winter to spring here in western Pennsylvania, a common sight on a recent walk included fallen and decomposing trees. Interesting to look at and begging to be photographed, these fallen trees also hold a very important role in the ecosystem.  This uprooted tree shows the roots still attached, along a hiking trail in Hartwood Acres Park. Dead and fallen trees are host to many forms of wildlife, some of which are easy to spot, like squirrels, woodpeckers, and snakes, while others may require a closer look to identify, including fungi, insects, an ..read more

by Olivia Buehler Within the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, one may be surprised to find more than the biological specimens, fossils, and extensive anthropological and archaeological materials that the museum is best known for. As a major scientific institution that collects and conducts research, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History also has its own “Natural History Art” Collection, formerly known as the M. Graham Netting Animal Portraiture Collection, named after the herpetologist, former CMNH director, and founder of the collection. Consisting mostly of mid-twentie ..read more

by Elizabeth A. Begley and Albert D. Kollar Did you know that invertebrate fossils make up more than 50% of the specimens on exhibit in Dinosaurs in Their Time (DITT)? It’s true! But these fossils can be easy to miss among the giant dinosaurs and vertebrate reptiles. Luckily, ongoing research on the biodiversity within our gallery spaces, from locations including England, Germany, and the United States, will help visitors better understand the importance of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Invertebrate Paleontology collection research, exhibition, and education initiatives1 ..read more