News from 350+ scientists @NHM_London has 80 million specimens that hold the information we need to provide solutions from and for nature
London, UK
Joined February 2010
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Are you an early career researcher who wants to gain experience in the cultural and heritage sector?
@ahrcpress
have a funding call open until 10 December - find out more. ukri.org/opportunity/early-c…
Are you attending the #FTWeekendFestival? Our Director of Science, Tim Littlewood will be speaking about digitising the entire collection and using technology to find solutions to some of the biggest challenges to our planet @financialtimeslive
Our @NHM_tring site opened to the public on this day in 1892. It was originally a private museum owned by Walter Rothschild who financed many expeditions. This is Rothschild's birdwing (Ornithoptera rothschildi), named after Rothschild by Charles Edgar Pratt.
It's #InternationalBatNight this weekend - here are a couple of bat skins from the collection. The label on the top one reads "Caught in a house after dark. This species appears to be fairly plentiful"
The Anopheles funestus mosquito is a vector for malaria. Erica McAlister has been involved in research sequenced historic specimens from our collection in addition to modern specimens to understand how the species is evolving. biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…
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Our scientists have been publishing new insights on the scientists that came before them
Two new Darwin’s manuscripts have been published for the first time. Written at a formative time between the voyage and the full development of his evolutionary ideas dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2025.…
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Juliana Anicia Codex is an illustrated volume from 512 CE. The names of the plants are given in Greek, but the text has been further annotated with Arabic and Persian names which have been translated for the first time.
dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2025.…
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🐘 Elephants are the only remaining species of the family Elephantidae, which belongs to the order of Proboscidea. This #WorldElephantDay find out more about this ancient order nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021…
Scientist Hugh Carter joined the ACTUATE voyage earlier this year to study the starfish, sea urchins and other echinoderms living in the Antarctic. Find out what this trip revealed about our seas in this @guardian article theguardian.com/environment/…
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Soil-transmitted helminths are parasitic worms transmitted through contaminated soil. The cycle of transmission is particularly difficult to break.
A new study in @TheLancet looks at whether community-wide mass drug administration can disrupt transmission doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(2…
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Where did the potato come from? 🥔
New research has found that potatoes are the result of an ancient hybridisation event. nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2025…
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The research team discovered that the first ancestors of the staple root vegetable likely appeared some time around nine million years ago. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.…
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The Community Science team held a BioBlitz to celebrate the first anniversary of our new gardens.
285 observations were recorded on iNaturalist and a further 81 records submitted to iRecord.
Take part in future community science opportunities at nhm.ac.uk/take-part.html
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The oldest signs of a spider-like brain have been found in an ancient marine fossil. nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2025…
Brilliant article pn Marine Biological Association 'Snapshots in time: the darwin tree of life project.' Museum scientist, Inez Januszczak describes coordinating a biodiversity sampling trip to Alderney.@darwintreelife mymba.mba.ac.uk/resource/sna…
The National Education Nature Park have reached a major milestone with over 1,000 schools signed up.
Find out how the programme is gathering habitat and biodiversity data from sites to measure and evidence biodiversity gains in a free webinar on 23 July
educationnaturepark.org.uk/w…
The #BigButterflyCount starts today - 2024 saw the lowest numbers in the scheme's history, with an average of seven butterflies seen per count compared to twelve in previous years. Visit bigbutterflycount.butterfly-… to find out how you can contribute your sightings this year.
Data from Museum collections are a vital part of the puzzle to add to observation records gathered by places like @savebutterflies and @inaturalist. The collection can provide data from before these schemes started and tell us about population changed over the past two centuries
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Happy Birthday Fern 🎂1⃣🎈
What would you give a Diplodocus for a birthday gift? 🎁
We’d love to hear your best ideas - though we have left it to the last minute, as tomorrow our Diplodocus Fern is turning one! 🎉🦕
Join us in wishing Fern the best first birthday ever, and let us know your gift ideas! 🎂
ALT A photo of Fern, a bronze Diplodocus, stood in the Natural History Museum gardens wearing a “Happy Birthday” tiara, with a colourful banner overhead reading “Fern is one” and a giant wax candle shaped like a 1 in the fern bushes in front.
Did you know that our collection has been used to develop AI technologies that could one day enable border forces to identify illegally traded species used in fashion goods like snake-skin bags?
#WorldSnakeDay #ArtificialIntelegence #taxonomy
In order to help border control classify what species, a snake handbag is from, we have trained an AI pilot tool with taxonomic knowledge, with many snake images, including digitised processed goods from the Museum and @OfficialZSL
#WorldSnakeDay
Our researchers have been busy publishing some incredible #scienceresearch including a new dinosaur, redefining venom and analysis on the smallest gliding marsupial updates scientific knowledge that will help conserve these species amidst the growing threat from bushfires.
A new species, Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, is the most complete named specimen of its kind and is now on display at the Museum thanks to funders David and Molly Lowell Borthwick. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.242195
Over 1,000 schools in England have started mapping habitats on their sites with the National Education Nature Park, taking part in global research🌸🐝
Young scientists are connecting with nature, boosting biodiversity and building skills for the future🌍
educationnaturepark.org.uk
Find out more about the science research that is being developed from the habitat and biodiversity data from this programme at a free webinar on 23 July.
educationnaturepark.org.uk/w…
🐝 Today is #DontStepOnABeeDay so we asked Joe Monks, curator of bees for his top bee facts:
1) There are more than 20,000 bees known to science
2) Most are solitary or parasitic.
3) Bees make nests in lots of places, from tunnels in the ground to snail shells.
