Bring your shells, rocks, insects, feathers, bones, and artifacts to the annual Identification Day. Scientists will attempt to identify your discoveries while showing you some specimens from their own collections. Items identified in previous years have included a whale jawbone, a green beetle bracelet from Brazil, and a 5,000-year-old stone spear point from Morocco. What will you bring?

Anthropology

• Bring as much information on your specimens as possible. If it belongs to a friend or family member, try to get the information from them.

Botany

• Please only bring plants that you have permission to collect.
• Plant samples that have flowers or fruits (or both) are much easier to identify than those without.
• Bring your plant sample in a zip-lock bag (this will keep the plant moist for easier identification and will avoid spreading pests in the Museum).
• Please try to bring fresh (very recently collected) plant samples.

Paleontology

• Bring as much information on your specimen as possible, especially its place of origin.

Herpetology & Mammalogy

• Please do not bring live or dead specimens.
• Photos of your specimens will be most useful for identification.

Learn more about what, and what not, to bring in a video, here.

Note: No appraisals will be given, and gemstones will not be identified.