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Today's Exhibit of the Day is a blast from the past! This archival image, snapped in 1938, depicts Museum preparators sculpting a model Triceratops. This large herbivore could reach lengths of 28 ft (8.5 m). The model pictured here isn't on display today, but Triceratops fans can spot a fossil skeleton in the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs.

Plan your visit!

Photo: AMNH Library / Image no. 315711

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Happy Father’s Day from the Gold-specs jawfish (Opistognathus randalli)! Dads-to-be of many jawfish species carry eggs in their mouths. This behavior helps protect offspring from predators. To attract females, male jawfish do a “dance” that involves a series of sweeping movements and fin-flashing. And the crescendo of this courtship ritual? Males open their mouths as wide as possible to boast their mouthbrooding potential! 

Photo: Wayne and Pam Osborn, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

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It’s Caturday! Meet the Oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus)! Also known as the little tiger cat or tigrillo, it has a wide range across South America and parts of Central America, ranging from northern Costa Rica to northern Argentina. The wild feline is adaptable and lives in a variety of forest habitats. While it’s skilled at climbing trees, it prefers sticking to the ground. Its diet includes a variety of critters such as birds, lizards, and small mammals.

Photo: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, flickr 

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Meet the cape golden mole (Chrysochloris asiatica)! Despite the resemblance, this critter is not a true mole. Instead, scientists consider golden moles to be part of the superorder Afrotheria, which includes elephants, hyraxes, and manatees! True moles are part of the superorder Laurasiatheria. Weighing about 0.1 lbs (0.05 kg), the cape golden mole spends most of its time underground, inhabiting tunnels that can be 656 ft (200 m) long. It hunts insects and small invertebrates by sensing their vibrations beneath the surface. 

Photo: Luke Goddard, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

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It’s Fossil Friday, so soar into the weekend with Archaeopteryx! When this dinosaur was first described in 1861, it caused a sensation. Discovered shortly after Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by means of natural selection, Archaeopteryx provided an example of evolution in action—a fossil that showed the transition between reptiles and birds. The first Archaeopteryx fossils ever found included exquisitely preserved skeletons with clear imprints of wings and feathers, but also teeth and a bony tail. Today, scientists think Archaeopteryx wasn’t able to fly very well, but the species still represents a turning point in paleontologists’ understanding of the relationship between ancient dinosaurs and modern birds in the design of both its body and brain.

Learn more about the fascinating world of dinosaurs at the Museum!

Photo: © AMNH 

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No, you can’t pet that dog. ✋ Introducing the bush dog (Speothos venaticus)! This rare canid is so elusive that it was once known only from fossils and thought to be long extinct. It inhabits parts of South America from Panama to northern Argentina, where it can be found in packs of up to 12 individuals. With partially webbed feet, this critter is a skilled swimmer and spends much of its time around water. It hunts for a variety of rodents including agoutis, pacas, and capybaras. 

Photo: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, flickr

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Floating with our favorite football-shaped friend. 🏈🤩

The vampire squid, Vampyroteuthis infernalis, has a grim reputation and name, but these gentle scavengers are "living fossils" that have remained relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years.

This species is the only living member of Vampyromorpha, an ancient cephalopod order that gave rise to both squids and octopuses. Vampire squids are often found in the oxygen minimum zone, an area ranging from 500 to 700 meters deep (1,640 to 2,296 feet) in Monterey Bay, which is very low in dissolved oxygen and hosts very little life within its boundaries.

Vampire squid use long feeding filaments to capture marine snow, including gelatinous zooplankton, abandoned larvacean houses, crustacean molts, dead diatoms, and fecal pellets. They can grow up to 30 centimeters (12 inches).

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🌈 Have you ever seen a prettier tree? Behold the beautiful rainbow eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta).  This large evergreen grows up to about 197 ft (60 m) tall. When strips of its bark peel off, they change in color: Bark starts out in shades of green, then transitions into purple, red, and orange as time goes on. Continuous peeling helps the tree keep its trunk clear of other plants. You might spot one in the Philippines, New Guinea, Indonesia, Hawaii, or Southern California.

Photo: photommo, CC BY-SA 2.0, flickr

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Behold the magnificent Satyr Tragopan (Tragopan satyra). Found in central and eastern parts of the Himalayas, this bird inhabits elevations of up to 14,107 ft (4,300 m). Males sport dazzling plumage and bright blue wattles, which they “show off” during elaborate courtship rituals. To attract potential mates, male Satyr Tragopans will spread their wings, nod their heads, rustle their feathers, vocalize, and inflate their wattles.

Photo: Matěj Baťha,CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

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Act like Megalochelys atlas and smile, because it’s Fossil Friday! One of the largest known land turtles, scientists think this massive reptile could reach heights of 5.9 ft (1.8 m)—tall enough to look a grown human in the eye. This specimen’s shell measures some 7.4 ft (2.3 m) long and in life, it may have weighed more than 2,000 lbs (907 kg). Megalochelys lived during the Late Pliocene about 2 million years ago. The fossil on display in the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins was found in 1922 in Chandigarh, India.

Photo: © AMNH

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✨The category is: celestial!✨ 🌟Join us on Friday, June 13, for an after-hours celebration featuring hands-on chemistry demonstrations, interplanetary journeys, and collaborative artmaking. With delicious treats and cocktails, the evening promises stellar vibes where everyone’s lights shine. Come dressed in your personal embodiment of the cosmos and enjoy a dazzling array of activities as you explore LGBTQ+ contributions to science, culture, and the natural world. 🎟️This program is for ages 21+. Visit our website for more details and to reserve tickets.

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Did you know? Fireflies aren’t flies at all: they're beetles! Of all of the insects in the world, fireflies are among the few to have evolved an extraordinary language of light. Many fireflies use a system of flashes in some of the same ways we use words: to attract, to say, “Here I am,” even to deceive. They emit light from a tiny organ, called a lantern, on the underside of their abdomen, where a biochemical reaction takes place within specialized cells called photocytes. The reaction releases energy in the form of light.

Photo: Jessica Lucia, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, flickr

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Whooo... are... youuu? 🐛🫖 Meet the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta). This bulky critter specializes in eating the tobacco plant, which is loaded with the natural insecticide known as nicotine. So how does it manage? When it bites into a nicotine-laced leaf, the action triggers an increase in the gut enzymes that break down nicotine—allowing the caterpillar to continue feeding. “Nicotine” may make you think only of tobacco, but lots of plants contain varying amounts of this toxin. For instance, green peppers, green tomatoes, and even green potatoes contain nicotine, though in concentrations too low to have any effect. Nicotine affects the transmission of nerve impulses in both the peripheral and central nervous systems.

Photo: Matt Noch, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist 

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Here’s one “birb” you don’t want to mess with: the Great Grey Shrike (Lanius excubitor)! When on the hunt, this carnivorous bird scans the area from its perch seeking out anything from a small mammal to a bird. After locking in on a target, which can be nearly as large as the bird itself, it swoops down and hits its meal with its hooked bill. This species has even been observed impaling prey on sharp objects—thorns or barbed wire—and sometimes “storing” it there for later consumption. It has a wide range which spans parts of Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.

Photo: Mikael Bauer, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

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Pretty little babies 🥰😍⁠

The pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robustus) mates and nests in deep-sea thermal springs, where the warm water seeping from the seafloor accelerates the development of their embryos.⁠ ⁠ After a mother Muusoctopus attaches her eggs to a rocky ledge, she turns herself upside down, inverts her arms, and shields her developing offspring with her body. As with many other octopuses and squids, a Muusoctopus mom sacrifices herself for her offspring. For nearly two years, she lives off her food reserves, then dies once her eggs hatch.⁠ ⁠ Scientists have discovered a handful of deep-sea octopus nurseries across the Eastern Pacific, including one in our own backyard. Davidson Seamount is an inactive underwater volcano off the coast of Central California, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Monterey. Near the base of the seamount, cracks and crevices bathed in warm water from hydrothermal springs are filled with pretty purple “pearls”—Muusoctopus moms. Welcome to the Octopus Garden, the largest known aggregation of octopus on Earth.

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🚨Life at the Limits: Nature’s Superheroes is now open!

Over billions of years, living things have evolved from simple cells into an awe-inspiring array of life forms—a spectacle of colors, textures, behaviors, specialized parts, and exacting skills. Some species are familiar. But others are so amazing that they test the limits of our imagination. 

Imagine holding your breath for up to two hours like the Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), enduring temperatures above 302°F (150°C) and below -458˚F (-272°C) like the tardigrade (Macrobiotus sp.), or “cheating death” by transforming from a mature adult back to a younger stage like the immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii). 

Come explore the diverse—and sometimes jaw-dropping—strategies that animals and plants employ to find food, fend off predators, reproduce, and thrive in habitats many would find inhospitable.

Learn more about Life at the Limits here.

Photos: Alvaro Keding & Daniel Kim / © AMNH

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The water coolers of the deep sea. 💧

The fingered goblet sponge (Heterochone calyx) is one of the largest sponges on the Pacific coast. Their funnel-shaped bodies can grow up to two meters (nearly seven feet) tall and fan out two meters (nearly seven feet) across. Remarkably, the skeleton of this massive animal is made of microscopic slivers of silica glass called spicules. As the sponge grows, the glass spicules fuse together, creating rigid joints in between. This intricate three-dimensional structure remains intact long after the tissues die.

Fingered goblet sponges support bustling communities of life. Much like coral reefs in tropical waters or the old-growth forests on land, countless critters make their home in sponge gardens.

Small snailfishes and shrimp seek refuge from predators inside a cavernous sponge, hiding from predators patrolling nearby sand channels. Crabs and feather stars climb up the sponge towers to feed in the current or release their eggs for maximum dispersal. Thousands more unseen animals thrive inside the nooks and crannies of the sponge.

Increased demand for metallic minerals could lead to mining in pristine areas of the deep sea, harming animals like Heterochone. Mining equipment plowing across the seafloor could damage sponges, and the plume of sediment from mining waste could clog their filtering mechanism. Life moves at a slower pace in the ocean’s frigid depths. It can take years for Heterochone and other deep-sea sponges to recover from disturbance, in turn threatening all the animals that depend on sponges. Decisions we make in our everyday lives can affect all animals, even in out-of-sight places like the deep sea.

Share what you have learned about Heterochone and sponge gardens to help protect these unique habitats. Help us spread the word about safeguarding the ocean’s pristine wilderness. The future of our big blue backyard depends on us.