by Vanessa Verdecia An image of a beautiful “blue” butterfly.  What kind is it, they asked me?  That’s not always an easy question to answer.  The first thing I knew was that this butterfly was in the family Papilionidae. […]

by Amy Henrici The new mammoth tooth as viewed from the side. The crown, or exposed part, of the tooth is at the top, and the root is at the bottom. […]

by Bonnie Isaac Fall is typically the time of year when we think plants are getting ready for winter. Think of trees changing colors and losing their leaves. […]

Mmmm…BRAINS!!! Lose your mind at Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s Haunted Museum After Dark: Year of the Zombie! Come dressed in costume ready to discover the real-life zombies of the natural world and trick-or-treat your way around the museum. […]

by Debra Wilson Just about every year since the Carnegie Museum of Natural History acquired it, Fred the Crystal Skull has made an appearance in Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems right around Halloween. […]

by Sue McLaren The dugong is a marine mammal related to the manatee. Dugongs and manatees are members of the order Sirenia, which in turn is included in a larger group called Afrotheria. […]

by Mason Heberling Fall allergies causing you grief?   Ragweed is a plant many people are (all too) familiar with.  Or at least their bodies are. […]

by Mason Heberling Human activities are changing our very notion of what is “natural.”  We are surrounded by nature, no matter whether we are in an asphalt parking lot in Pittsburgh or deep in the Allegheny National Forest. […]

by Tim Pearce Ctenophore, Mertensia ovum Most people have heard of 6 to 10 of the 30 modern animal phyla. (A phylum is a major group of animals). […]

by Mason Heberling Corn is a staple crop known well by many across the world.  Corn is used in a variety of ways including human food (from corn on the cob to corn syrup), animal feed, ethanol production, and especially this time of year, fall decoration and corn mazes. […]

by Bob Jones While on vacation, my wife and I took a morning walk on the beach to enjoy the sights and sounds of the surf while getting some exercise. […]

by John Wible The newest issue of Annals of Carnegie Museum, our quarterly scientific journal highlighting museum research and collections, is hot off the presses. The cover is graced by photographs of a beautiful moth from Montana that was hand reared and studied by Curator James W. […]

by Mason Heberling Many invasive species in our region were ironically first introduced intentionally. The tree-of-heaven ( Ailanthus altissima ) is one such example, originally praised with enthusiasm as a lovely garden tree, fast growing, well behaved, resistant to pests and pollution – therefore an excellent urban street tree. […]

by Lauren Raysich Although many people are familiar with fossilized bones of dinosaurs and other large extinct creatures, some fossils can be so small that a microscope is needed to see them. […]

by John Wenzel Aphids are usually small wingless insects that suck sap from plants, usually specializing on one kind of plant. Many species can reproduce rapidly by parthenogenesis, where females give live birth to daughters without mating. […]

by James W. Fetzner Jr. We hear a soft THUMP! as another large bug hits the sheet after being drawn in to the bright mercury vapor light on this moonless night in the mountains of Montana. […]

by Marc L. Yergin and Timothy A. Pearce Yes, some sponges live in freshwater. Before our recent finds, only one species of sponge had been reported from western Pennsylvania. […]

Happy International Peace Day! by Nicole Heller At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and with the upcoming Carnegie International , we are thinking a lot these days about the Earth and humanity, both the amazing cultural diversity and forms of human expression and knowledge, and also the sustainability challenges that have emerged with more than seven billion people and growing. […]

Assistant Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, Jennifer Sheridan, discussed her upcoming research and teaching trip to Borneo on Facebook Live! If you missed it live, check out the recording to learn all about her trip. […]

by Mason Heberling Herbarium specimens are both an art and a science.  This fact is no more apparent than in the collaborations between Andrey Avinoff and Otto Jennings, which culminated in the 1953 book Wildflowers of Western Pennsylvania and the Upper Ohio Basin. […]

On May 25, 2018, a small protest broke out at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, arguably the largest event in the architectural community worldwide. […]

Americans are used to gun violence. In an average week in the United States, 672 people will be killed by gunshot, another 1,344 will be injured, and there will be four mass shootings. […]

On a cold Saturday morning in December, sculptor Thaddeus Mosley arrives at his Northside studio, located in an industrial park along the Ohio River. Walking down a short flight of stairs into the basement of a brick building, he opens a breaker box and switches on the lights, illuminating the entire bottom floor. […]

The title of Robert Breer’s film Blazes (1961) might refer to the breakneck speed of visual impressions that flood the screen as the reel gallops through the projector’s gate. […]

Three years into photographing my relationship with my mother, a project that manifested in a series of self-portraits with her, we found ourselves weary in her childhood home while my grandmother-my mother's mother-lay dying in hospice care in the next room. […]

In September 2016, I hosted Ingrid Schaffner and Bisi Silva to show them my collection of Haitian art and to discuss their imminent trip to the Caribbean in preparation for the Carnegie Int’l, 57th ed. […]

Heads up, savvy scanners, here are three words to track: Truss, Fuss, and Catenary. This triumvirate of terms, coined by curator Ingrid Schaffner and derived from engineering structures, is shaping the identity and communications of the Carnegie Int'l, 57th ed. […]

Museums face unique hurdles in collecting, preserving, and exhibiting time-based media. This broad term— time-based media —refers to film, video, audio, digital, and computer-based art that entails a temporal duration and depends on changing technology. […]