marine

Tropical Fishes of the East Indies

Samuel Fallours was working for the Dutch East India Company in the early 1700s on the island of Ambon (part of present day Indonesia) as a clergyman’s assistant. Having an artistic talent, he made drawings of local fish, crustaceans, and other marine organisms from the Indian Ocean. The illustrations he drew, so vivid and bright, even surrealistic, are considered to be among the finest natural history illustrations ever made.

Shrimps, Lobsters, and Crabs

Many of us may think of Old Bay and/or butter when we think of shrimp, lobster, and crabs, but for the scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), these creatures are viewed as part of food webs, as ecological invaders, or as proxies for understanding ecosystem dynamics.

Bone To Book–

Natural History is more than just bones and fossils in a museum drawer…

Studying natural history is about discovering objects in the natural world and translating their meaning into scientific knowledge.  Whales—From Bone to Book, a Smithsonian Libraries exhibition located in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, traces the fascinating journey of how Smithsonian scientists study the largest and most intelligent mammals on the planet: whales.

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