by Amy Covell-Murthy, Archaeology Collection Manager and Head of the Section of Anthropology  Indigenous Peoples’ Day is observed in many US cities and states alongside Columbus Day, and I would ..read more

by Serina Brady and Mariana Marques For centuries, naturalists have collected the living world with the primary goal of understanding the diversity and complexity of our planet. In vast shelves ..read more

by John Wible In the tenth edition of the “Systema Naturae” (1758), the Swedish botanist and natural historian Carl Linnaeus recognized eight orders of mammals, all of which include species ..read more

by Sabrina Spiher Robinson and Tim Pearce Imagine you’re a clam, hanging out in your cozy little hole under shallow ocean water, with your siphon out, just filtering lunch out ..read more

by Sabrina Spiher Robinson and Tim Pearce We try not to have strong favorites among the mollusks of the world in the CMNH Section of Mollusks, but it’s hard not ..read more

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