National Museum of Natural History Unearthed

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH

Not a basketball fan? Feeling left out of the March Madness fun? Wishing there was a bracket that incorporated your interests in birds, mammals, insects, fishes, and more?

We have the solution for you! It’s called ...

Museum Madness is our version of the basketball tournament - with a twist. Instead of teams competing, we have objects vying for your interest. Would you like to learn more about our iconic elephant or a species of fish thought to have died out with the dinosaurs? Over the next two weeks, you decide what will advance through the rounds and reign victorious.

So who are the contenders?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Fenykovi Elephant
2. Martha the Passenger Pigeon
3. Snarge
4. Roosevelt Rhinos
5. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
6. X-ray of a Seahorse
7. Coelacanth
8. Great White Shark

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Burgess Shale Fossils
3. Tasmanian Tiger
4. T-Rex
5. Megalodon Jaws
6. Neanderthal from Shanidar
7. Lucy, Our Early Human Ancestor (reconstruction)
8. Turtle Skeleton

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Hope Diamond
2. Easter Island Stone Figure
3. Monarch Butterfly
4. Bull Mummy
5. Tarantula
6. Titanoboa
7. Korean Bridal Gown
8. Giant Squid

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Allende Meteorite
2. Smithsonite
3. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
4. Handaxe Made by Early Humans
5. Wood Collection
6. Scarab Beetle
7. Invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico
8. Modern Human Art and Music

How do you vote and follow the action?

Starting Tuesday, March 20th, keep an eye open where you follow us - Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest - for links to the voting pages.

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

 

Very large beetle challenges museum workers in local backyard

Gotcha!
April Fools!

April the first has long been a day of opportunity for some and dread for others, depending on which side of the “trick” one falls.  Insects are arguably perfect targets for appearing in exaggeration images, because they are relatively easy to capture and not difficult to photograph (with practice). One of the most famous size-inflated postcards of the last century was that of a grasshopper of some three feet of length, being held by a farmer in Idaho.

The above image was meant simply as an object of an electronic April Fool’s Day joke for circulation to the combined entomological staff (Smithsonian, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, and Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit, DOD), housed mostly at the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian Institution.  Several coleoperists (beetle workers) agreed to participate, and the composition was done by my daughter Amanda. Happily, insects do not reach large sizes, but if they did, the Smithsonian would be the first to document them.

Gary Hevel, Public Information Officer, Entomology Department

Insect Collecting - Bowls, Fogging, and More!

Back in June, Dr. Matt Buffington told you how to photograph parasitic wasps. How have these nearly four million wasps gotten and continue to get into our collections? Dr. Michael Gates has the story.

How To: Photograph Parasitic Wasps

Edible Insects

Through the Windshield >>> looking forward

In recent days, the united Entomology Community at the Smithsonian Institution (USDA-SEL, WRBU, and the NMNH Department of Entomology) hosted the first in a very long time Open House for all members of the National Museum of Natural History; and what a turnout it was! “Bugs” (in the vernacular) are truly compelling and many of our colleagues came to take a peek at what we do here in Buglandia. Now that that is history, we are looking forward to our next venue of outreach, the Blog-o-sphere! For the past couple years, we published The Bug Dispatch in-house on paper and on our Entomology website. The purpose of The Bug Dispatch is to provide information about the research, field work, collaborations, and outreach activities undertaken by members of our entomological community. With this inaugural edition, we are taking The Bug Dispatch into the Blog-o-sphere. Be sure to visit us often on this new blog from the Department of Entomology. We will keep you visually riveted and on the edge of your seat, as you delve into the life of bugs and those who study them. Visit the new Bug Dispatch

Terry L. Erwin, Chair, Department of Entomology