Stories
Welcome to Stories, a place to explore—and be inspired by—the wonder of our natural and cultural worlds.
Hidden black and white feathers are the secret behind songbirds' dazzling colors
Colorful songbirds like tanagers use a painterly technique to make their colors pop
How Bird Feathers Work
A brief look at the structure of feathers—and what they mean to birds
A Monster “Goblin” at the Feet of Dinosaurs
Meet the newly discovered giant, armored lizard named for the Hobbit’s goblin prince
A First Step to Bird Names as Simple as ABC
First-of-its-kind Avian Lexicon Atlas maps how bird species get their names
How Ancient Crocodile-Like Predators Ruled the Islands of the Caribbean
NHM's scientist discovers that sebicids, ancient land-dwelling crocodile-like beasts, reigned over the West Indies as apex predators after vanishing from South America
The Lights Below
A new study shines a light on the mechanics of bioluminescence in the rare fish Vinciguerria mabahiss and we explore some of the other fish lighting up the deep
Bird banding, Wildfire Smoke, and the Nature Gardens
Researchers band birds and collect feathers in the Nature Gardens to study the impacts of wildfire smoke on birds.
Collections Staff Help Ammonites Come Out of Their Shells
Uncovering how digitization and collections management made a groundbreaking extinction study come to life
The Olympics in Los Angeles: Back to the Future
Los Angeles first hosted the 1932 Summer Games for the Xth Olympiad. The Museum, then called the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, provided the venue for the Olympic Art Exhibition.
A Deep Dive on Microplastics
Museum scientists are examining fish guts to understand the pervasiveness and types of plastics invading California waters over time, which may help us understand how that pollution affects sea creatures and even land-loving pescatarians.