Research News

Newsroom of the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian is one of the world’s foremost research centers in science, the arts, and the humanities. In addition to research pursued by the museums, our research centers specialize in areas of inquiry spanning the globe and the farthest reaches of the universe.

Microscopic close-up of gray textured area with red scaling.
Rob Wardell, Tim Gooding and Tim McCoy, Smithsonian.
NMNH - Bennu, 5

Magnesium sodium phosphate. Phosphorus is shown as light red. Today, it lacks a crystalline structure, so it is not technically a mineral. In fact, phosphates like these are not known from Earth.

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Microscopic close-up of particles.
Rob Wardell, Tim Gooding and Tim McCoy, Smithsonian.
NMNH - Bennu, 4

A calcite (calcium carbonate) crystal 5 micrometers in size.

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Microscopic close-up of circular particles.
Rob Wardell, Tim Gooding and Tim McCoy, Smithsonian.
NMNH - Bennu, 3

Magnetite (iron oxide) crystals less than 1 micrometer in size. The individual crystals range in shapes from six-sided cubes to eight-sided octahedra.

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Microscopic close-up of gray, rice-shaped particles.
Rob Wardell, Tim Gooding and Tim McCoy, Smithsonian.
NMNH - Bennu, 2

Sodium carbonate. The vein is also surrounded by clay-rich rock, with small pieces of rock resting on top of the sodium carbonate needles.

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Small black, white and tan furry animal sits outdoors.

Wild black-footed ferret wearing a novel tracking collar peers out of a prairie dog burrow. Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Innovative Technology Aims To Boost Black-Footed Ferret Recovery Efforts
Smithsonian Leads Groundbreaking Research To Track and Monitor One of North America’s Most Endangered Mammals
01.28.2025
National Zoo & SCBI Research News
Imprint of left foot in grayish, sandy ground.

Credit Kevin Hatala.

Fossil Footprints Reveal That Two Early Human Relatives Lived on the Same Landscape 1.5 Million Years Ago
Analysis of Other Fossil Footprint Sites Shows That the Two Species Repeatedly Visited Lake Margin Habitats for Up to 200,000 Years
11.28.2024
Natural History Museum Research News
People in hats and shorts sit, examining the ground.
Neil Roach
NMNH - Fossil Footprint, site excavation

Members of the research team excavating the ancient footprint site near Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in July 2022.

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A group of men with plastic shovels stand in sandy, rocky area.
Kay Behrensmeyer
NMNH - Fossil Footprint, research site

Geological trench at the footprint site that revealed multiple stratigraphic levels for future research. Kenyan excavators (left to right) Apolo Alkoro Longaye, Hilary Sale, Ben Sila, Losogo Nyakitala and David Kipkebut provided assistance with Behrensmeyer’s geological work on the site in 2023.

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Gray, sandy imprint of a foot with a white ruler nearby for measurement.
Kevin Hatala
NMNH - Fossil Footprint, Upper Measure
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Gray, sandy crevice in the shape of a left foot with a small white ruler nearby.
Kevin Hatala
NMNH - Fossil Footprint

Two of the 1.5 million-year-old footprints preserved at the site. The research team attributes the one on the left to Paranthropus boisei, a member of an extinct side branch of human relatives, and the one on the right to Homo erectus, which could be a direct ancestor to humans.

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Kirtland’s Warbler; environmental conditions in migratory birds’ winter homes carry over to affect their survival ability

Researchers found drier winters impact the likelihood of Kirtland’s warblers surviving migration and their ability to survive the breeding season. Credit: Nathan W. Cooper, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

Drier Winter Habitat Impacts Songbirds’ Ability To Survive Migration
Climate Change-Driven Drying in Caribbean Likely To Impact Birds Throughout Annual Cycle
10.04.2024
National Zoo & SCBI Research News
Close up of brown, slightly fuzzy ant looking down at miniscule baby ants.
Karolyn Darrow
NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Higher Agriculture

The queen and workers of the leaf-cutting fungus-farming ant species Atta cephalotes, collected in Panama, on their higher-agriculture fungus garden.

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Close-up of brown ant crawling on jagged surface.
Don Parsons.
NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Lower Agriculture

A lower-fungus-farming worker of the rare fungus-farming ant species Mycetophylax asper, collected in Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2014, on its fungus garden.

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Close-up of brown ant holding clearish, white oval object.
Alex Wild
NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Yeast Agriculture

A yeast-farming worker of the fungus-farming ant species Cyphomyrmex cf. rimosus, collected in Mindo, Ecuador, in 2011, on its fungus garden.

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Close up of thin, brown-range ant with spindly legs crawling over wispy, craggly surface.
Alex Wild
NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Coral Fungus Agriculture

A coral-fungus-farming worker of the fungus-farming ant species Apterostigma collare, collected at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica in 2015, on its fungus garden.

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Three people outside smile for a picture; two men sitting with legs in a dug hole and a woman inside the hole.
Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo
NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Chapeco

Entomologist Ted Schultz (center), the curator of ants at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the lead author of the new paper, with

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A man in khaki-colored hiking gear stands with back to a large wooded vista.
Jeffrey Sosa-Calvo
NMNH Fungus Farming Ants - Ted Schultz

Entomologist Ted Schultz, the curator of ants at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the lead author of the new paper, on an ant-collecting exped

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Close-up of a brown ant with six legs, bulbous body and two front pinchers crawling on jagged surface.

A lower-fungus-farming worker of the rare fungus-farming ant species Mycetophylax asper, collected in Santa Catarina, Brazil, in 2014, on its fungus garden. Credit: Don Parsons.

Ant Agriculture Began 66 Million Years Ago in the Aftermath of the Asteroid That Doomed the Dinosaurs
Smithsonian Scientists Assembled and Analyzed Sprawling Genetic Database, Finding Some Fungal Crops Later Became Completely Reliant on Ants 27 Million Years Ago
10.03.2024
Natural History Museum Research News
Interior room with multiple storage drawers of natural history specimens and rocks.
Chip Clark
NMNH Surface Temp - Paleobiology Collection

Fossils in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History research collection in its Department of Paleobiology.

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Man with short grayish-black hair smiles, standing on a boat with yellow handrail and wearing blue puffy jacket.
William Crawford
NMNH Surface Temp - Brian Huber

Smithsonian paleobiologist Brian Huber in 2017 on a deep-sea drilling vessel in the south and southwest waters of Australia studying Earth’s Cretaceous climate.

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Woman in a white top, gray cardigan and purple scarf smiles outside a building with glass siding.
University of Arizona.
NMNH Surface Temp - Jess Tierney

Jessica Tierney, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Arizona and a co-author of the new paper.

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Man in a hat and jacket stands outdoors at top of snow covered mountains holding poster of alligator.
Courtesy of Ira Block.
NMNH Surface Temp - Scott Wing

Smithsonian paleobiologist Scott Wing stands in the snow-covered badlands of Wyoming, where alligators once lived 56 million years ago.

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Three pieces of gray stone with imprint of leaf in half-moon shape with discernible straight leaves.
Lucia RM Martino, James Di Loreto and Fred Cochard, Smithsonian.
NMNH Surface Temp - Fossil Palm Leaf

The new paper is part of an ongoing research effort that began in 2018, when Smithsonian researchers were helping develop the museum’s "David H Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time.

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Woman with long, light brown hair and sunglasses smiles, standing outdoors in front of mountain and river.
Lindsay Moon
NMNH Surface Temp - Emily Judd

Emily Judd, the lead author of the new paper and a former postdoctoral researcher at the National Museum of Natural History and the University of Arizona, at the Walcott Quarry in British Columbia, Canada, in 2019.

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