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Confuciusornis is the earliest-known toothless, beaked bird.

At age 10, George Barrowclough began bird watching with his dad. He pursued his interest in birds by becoming an orni...

This living dinosaur is also known by its common name, the Martineta tinamou.

In Japan, a frightening water creature called the kappa was long known for pulling children underwater and drowning t...

This theropod belonged to a group called ornithomimids, also called "ostrich-mimics."

With its bird-like features, this animal was mistaken for a giant bird for a while.

All living organisms need energy to live. Organisms such as plants get this energy from the Sun. But animals get this...

Meet some of the more unusual members of T. rex and Velociraptor's family tree.

For Steve Quinn, art and science have always gone hand-in-hand. As a kid, he liked to draw and make clay models of di...

Today, unicorns are creatures of fairy tales. But thousands of years ago, people believed these creatures were real,...

When most people think of flamingos, they imagine the delicate pink bird wading in a warm and sunny tropical marsh. N...

When he was 8 years old, Theodore Roosevelt found a seal skull. It would be the first specimen in his very own natura...

Paleontologist Mark Norell answers kids’ questions.

The Sumatran tiger is found in only one place on the Earth -- on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Fewer than 500 o...

Growing up, Joel Cracraft loved reading travel and adventure books. In high school, he became interested in ornitholo...

From Madagascar to Indonesia, travel around the world with Museum scientists.

The snowy egret is a beautiful sight. An adult egret is distinguished by its dark slender beak, long black legs, and...

The Dzanga-Sangha rain forest is alive with the sounds of snakes, chimpanzees, birds, insects, and many exotic creatu...

The mythic bird-creature Garuda is often shown attacking Nagas, snakelike creatures with human heads.

Find out what's so fascinating about these beautiful, pink birds.

The whooping crane is known as the tallest bird in North America. This long legged creature has been struggling to su...

Learn how to look at a bunch of bones and draw what a dinosaur looked like.

What skin color, eye color, and type of feathers will you give this T. rex?

This large dark bird is unmistakable soaring in the air along the coast.

This extinct bird weighed over 330 pounds and had heavy legs and tiny wings.

Scientists have identified over 1.75 million species on Earth -- over one million of them are insects and spiders.

Polar bears are the top predator of the icy Arctic. But these large, furry white mammals have to work hard for their...

This prehistoric relative of living ducks had a long neck, tall legs, webbed feet, and a duck-like head.

His love of natural sciences and extreme camping led this scientist to paleontology.

Match up these eight dinosaur fossil photos with their descriptions.

With its long, dramatic crest, the giant Pteranodon longiceps is easy to recognize.

Susan Perkins has always loved being outside. As a child, she played in the woods and took field notes about birds an...

This is one of the oldest known dinosaurs!

Join the inquisitive Deena Soris as she interviews the fossil of a Protoceratops.

Mix the sounds of different animals to create the roar of the Tyrannosaurus rex!

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Challenge your friends to this Mesozoic Era card game.

Conservation biologist Ana Luz Porzecanski answers kids' questions.
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Ornithologists, or scientists who study birds, want to prevent the forests of the Pacific Northwest from being choppe...

California condors are the largest birds in North America. Like all vultures, condors are carrion-eaters. This means...

Watch these videos to explore Felicity's work as a conservation biologist.

Explore this family tree of living things on Earth.

New Caledonia, a tiny island east of Australia, is the only place where an unusual bird called the kagu is found. Abo...

Earth was a very different place at the beginning of the Triassic. All of Earth's continents were combined into one s...

Effigia looks just like a dinosaur. It particularly looks a lot like bird-like dinosaurs called ornithomimids, or ost...

The first vertebrates to fly took to the skies about 215 million years ago. These creatures were neither birds nor ba...

Explore some of the inventive ways that help living things reproduce and their offspring survive.

When you wake up in the morning, you might see sunlight through your window, hear birds chirping, or smell breakfast.

The Komodo dragon lumbers through the forest on its thick, stocky legs. It sways its head back and forth, flicking it...

What do we have in common with sharks, bluebirds, lizards, and toads? We are all vertebrates, or animals with backbon...

The frigid waters of the Arctic and the Antarctic may seem like hostile habitats. But a variety of marine life -- fro...

Paleontologist Mark Norell answers questions about T. rex.

Find out what lives in the deep sea, coral reef, and continental shelf.

Did you know that biodiversity provides us with things that we need?

The St. Vincent parrot makes its home on the tropical island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. These parrots are cover...

The American crocodile has lived on Earth for millions of years, but today their numbers are rapidly declining becaus...

The electric eel is long and narrow like an eel, but it is actually not an eel at all. In fact, electric eels are pro...

The hellbender is one of the largest salamanders in North America.

The king cobra is the largest venomous snake in the world. Whether slithering on land, climbing trees, or swimming, i...

There are more than 250 kinds of vipers, a family of poisonous snakes. The largest of all is the gabon viper.

Museum scientists answer kids' questions!

Thousands of plants and animal species may be in danger of becoming extinct and disappearing forever.

For over 1,000 years, people called the Inuit lived in the Arctic. Long ago, they relied on fishing and hunting for s...

This rare lizard lived in the Gobi Desert about 80 million years ago.

Paleontologists uncovered this just-hatched Protoceratops in 1997 at Ukhaa Tolgod.

Named in 2000, this dinosaur is hot off the "paleo" presses! Unlike the jagged teeth of other troodontids,...

This horned dinosaur had two long spikes on the back of its frill, the bony extension behind its skull.

Visit three national parks and monuments. What can you discover with just your eyes?

Take a peek inside two paleontologists' scrapbook.

Create your own miniature Mesozoic Museum. Don't forget to invite your friends and family to the opening!

Send a note to a friend with these colorful letterheads.

One of the earlier dinosaurs to appear on Earth was Coelophysis. It was a small, but skilled hunter that lived during...

That toothy grin might make you think this is a crocodile or an alligator. But the Yacaré caiman is neither. Caimans...

This mighty member of the cat family is a powerful predator. It can leap up to 30 feet in the air, climb trees, and e...

An invasive species is a living thing that moves into a new region. Species often become "invasive" as a re...

The name Jurassic conjures images of tremendous dinosaurs roaming the Earth.

Around the North Pole, temperatures are so cold that parts of the ocean turn into solid ice called "sea ice.

At the top of the world is a cold and icy area called the Arctic. It is made up of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Nort...

Its brow horns and snout horn inspired this dinosaur's name, which means "three-horned face."

What animal does this long, spiraled tooth belong to? Take a guess!

Sauropods weren't just the largest dinosaurs. They were also the largest animals to ever live on land. The sauropod M...

Until 1828, pterosaur fossils had been found only in Germany. Then a new kind of pterosaur fossil was discovered in E...

Unlike modern reptiles, pterosaurs weren't covered in scales. They were covered in fuzz! Pterosaurs kept warm with a...

About 100 million years ago, a flying reptile called Pterodaustro guinazui soared above the coast of what is now Arge...

Imagine a flying reptile the size of a two-seater plane! That's Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest flying animals eve...

The most dazzling feature on many pterosaurs was a spectacular head crest. Tupuxuara leonardii had one of the most im...

Many famous dinosaurs, such as T. rex and Triceratops, first appeared in the Cretaceous Period.

This massive plant-eater lived about 100 million years ago. Today, a cast of this 122-foot long titanosaur welcomes v...

Find out how biodiversity depends on you.

Discover some of the amazing ways that organisms have evolved to keep from being eaten.

What is it like to hunt for dinosaur fossils? And what discoveries are made back in the lab?

Find out what you can do to protect the oceans and ocean life.

Test your knowledge about the variety of life on Earth with this quiz.

The Asian elephant is one of the largest land mammals in the world. Some people believe that elephants feel joy and s...

The Tibetan antelope, also known as "chiru," is one of the most beautiful mammals in the world.

Tipping the scales at more than 7 pounds, the Goliath is the largest frog in the world. Just two of these frogs weigh...

The leatherback is the world's largest turtle. Unlike the bony exterior of other sea turtles, the exterior of the lea...

The mountain gorilla lives high up in the forests of east central Africa.

It's easy to see how the starfish got its name -- with their pointed arms, these creatures look like stars fallen to...

It only seems like the world's entire ant population attends your picnics.

Cassava is one tough plant because it can grow in poor and unfertile soil in most tropical environments. Cassava is a...

Have you ever seen pond scum -- that thick, smelly layer of slime floating on the surface of the water? That's probab...

Dinoflagellates are tiny, one-celled organisms that live in oceans and freshwater ponds, rivers, and streams. Some di...

Based on fossils of ancient dragonflies, we know these winged insects have been soaring around for at least 300 milli...

Think of giant kelp as the Godzilla of the seaweeds.

Giant puffballs aren't your typical mushrooms.

Most people know red and black spotted ladybird beetles as friendly insects that are fun to pick up and watch fly awa...

If you looked at the contents of a vacuum cleaner bag with a microscope, you'd probably find millions of tiny creatur...

You might think that all mosquitoes are alike, but did you know that there are actually about 2,500 different kinds?...

The Portuguese man-of-war is actually a floating colony of individuals called polyps that are all dependent on each o...

Although the rosy periwinkle stands only one foot tall, in the world of medicine it's a giant.

A rotting log is a mighty tasty meal -- if you're a termite. Termites not only eat wood, some kinds live in it, too....

Not all spiders spin webs to catch their meals. When night falls in Australia, the white-tailed spider hunts its prey...

Some exotic creatures lurk in the polar seas, but perhaps none is more bizarre than the giant sea spider.

For centuries, orange roughy went mostly unnoticed by humans. These fish thrived in the dark, the cold, and the inten...

Many people have seen the beautiful spiral triton trumpet shell. Unfortunately, most people can see these brown and w...

With their white bellies and dark backs, dolphins can be found jumping above the water, swimming alongside fishing sh...

Vietnam is a country of amazing biodiversity, including many rare and unusual species. One fascinating example is the...

To try to piece together how organisms are related, scientists use cladistics.

Are these rare and colorful creatures flowering plants or animals?

Most mammals that live on land use their legs to get around. But the white-handed gibbon relies mostly on its arms. U...

This beautiful tortoise lives in the deserts of Madagascar, an island off the coast of Africa. This reptile gets its...

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Sharks have been around for 450 million years. Find out about their unique features and way of life!

Of all the dinosaurs to roam the Earth, the largest ones belonged to a group called sauropods- huge plant-eating dino...

Bury chicken bones in plaster of Paris to see the challenges paleontologists face when excavating fossils.

Antarctica is like no other place on Earth. The continent is covered almost entirely by a thick ice sheet. Yet there...

Put on these handmade masks or puppets and tell your own mythic tale.

Why does this scientist love studying tiny living things called microbes?

OLogy learning: Find resources for K-5 grade levels.

Tracking a gorilla can get hairy. Literally. Just ask George Amato.

Take a world-wide tour of biodiversity with three scientists.

Biodiversity is the rich variety of life on Earth. But why is it important?

How is the ocean like a layer cake? What creatures live there? And how important is the ocean? Take a dive and find out!

Explore how Eleanor is protecting the world's animals and plants.