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Oceans

Stories

The Great Shark Hunt

A community effort to uncover ancient L.A.

A Fishy Query

Why does this supersized shark’s mouth glow in the dark?

A Rare Deep Sea Gem Arrives at NHM

A Pacific footballfish, a type of anglerfish that typically lives thousands of feet underwater, and that washed ashore at the beach, is now part of our Ichthyology Collection.

Candy Darter – Etheostoma osburn for featured image

Fishes Across America: Last Stop, Roanoke

Say hello to a Hog Sucker (and a couple Darters)

Fishes Across America: Kentucky Is for Darters

Two darter fish, one Bluegrass State

Walruses: On the Tusk of Greatness

With the discovery of the oldest tusked walrus yet, NHM scientists are getting to the root of the walrus’ long tooth.

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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.