Oceans

Events

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Wed

19

Feb

Book Cover - North America's Galapagos: The Historic Channel Islands Biological Survey

Book Launch: North America's Galapagos

After-Hours

6 pm

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Sat

07

Mar

Wild L.A. Field Trip: Tidepooling

Educator Workshop

1 pm

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Sat

14

Mar

L.A. Nature Fest

Festival

9:30 am

L.A. Nature Fest is a two-day festival that celebrates L.A.'s wild side!

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Sun

15

Mar

L.A. Nature Fest

Festival

9:30 am

L.A. Nature Fest is a two-day festival that celebrates L.A.'s wild side!

Learn more

Wed

10

Jun

Homeschool Day: Amazing Habitats!

Homeschool Days

10 am

Explore the diversity of habitats on earth, both past and present!

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Stories

Amy Gusick doing field research in Micronesia

Humans On The Move

Dr. Amy Gusick, NHM’s Associate Curator of Anthropology, looks for answers in her archaeological studies of how people responded to environmental fluctuations

Close up of spanish shawl collected during DISCO bio blitz showing bright purple and orange coloring

Our Expedition to the Shore of L.A.

Oceans Online

Digitization of collections unlocks climate clues.

Fish Since the Dinosaurs

The last 66 million years of fish evolution

A close-up view of the glass rope sponge’s delicate silica spindles.

Woah, Check Out This Sponge

The glass rope sponge is a true marine oddity.

These little anemones were collected and photographed live, but have not yet been identified. Anemones are related to corals and jellies (also known as jellyfish, from back when anything in the ocean was a “fish”). Anemones look so peaceful with their saying tentacles, but they use those to sting animals that pass by so they can paralyze them and eat them.

Tiny Marine Marvels

DISCO collects specimens down by the docks

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Marine Biodiversity Center

Most species on Earth are animals, and most animals are invertebrates, so most of the Earth’s astonishing biodiversity is in the invertebrate animals. The Marine Biodiversity Center is the museum’s core facility for the curation of these remarkable animals. Collections come to the museum from a variety of research projects and government agencies.

abalone cove beach southern california daytime

DISCO

An ongoing program at the Natural History Museum aims to develop research and monitoring tools to enormously accelerate our ability to discover and investigate marine invertebrate biodiversity of California’s nearshore waters.

Past Projects

While NHM is not currently working on these projects, they have influenced our current community science projects.

Life in the Ocean

Our researchers are devoted to better understanding our coastal communities — both now and in the past — and the thousands of animals that live (or lived) there.