Oceans

Exhibitions

Anglerfish

New Discoveries

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Stories

The Ancient Odyssey of Crabs

An international team of scientists including NHM researchers chart crabs' sideways path from the ocean to dry land—a journey they've made at least 17 times since the Triassic.

How Our Museum Grows

A unique and transformative museum mentorship program about biodiversity begins

Genus Pseudopotamilla polychaete by Leslie Harris

An Ocean of Worms

Discover an underwater world of incredible marine worms in the ancient rocks off L.A.’s coast

Stepping Stones Across Oceans

NHM’s Ichthyology Curator visits two remote islands to understand how fish move around our planet.

Wonder Girls

A contingent of 8 to 18-year-olds spent three inspirational days at NHM learning from experts about fossils, mammals, and oceans, and discovering the many stepping stones to careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Depth Perceptions

NHM’s marine collections illuminate the shape of life in deep water.

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Girls in Stem text with a variety of icons in purple, yellow, and pink

Girls in STEM Days

Join us for Girls in STEM Days at the Natural History Museum! Girls in STEM Days are an opportunity for girls ages 8-18 to participate in hands-on STEM activities, meet real scientists, and explore future career paths in a fun and engaging way.

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.

Close up of Polychaetes, black background

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.