This chunky Botta’s Pocket Gopher (Thomomys bottae) at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History lived his life at the Santa Barbara Airport, where he was collected October 29, 1963. A robust male, he’s one of the largest specimens preserved in the drawer in the background. Before preparing this taxidermy, scientists measured him as over 11 […]

This unassuming Omus californicus tiger beetle is a fearsome hunter, provided you are ant sized. Tiger beetles are some of the top insect predators. As the world’s fastest insects, they’re actually a lot more like cheetahs than tigers. They hunt by running extremely fast across the ground, charging at prey with their mandibles open. They […]

Gloria Swanson starred in Cecil B. DeMille’s silent film Male and Female, but the leading player in this 1919 photo is Santa Cruz Island. If you look closely at the beach, you can just make out a few of the palms Paramount used to dress up the rugged location of Frys Harbor. “Two large barges […]

This piece of Monterey Shale reveals the work of our local boring clams, so called because they bore into the rock to create a secure home. Curators at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History who study bivalves (clams, oysters, scallops, and mussels) don’t find these animals boring at all. The mollusks have a rough […]

This hand-colored etching of butterflies was produced in the late 18th century by Carl Gustav Jablonsky, an artist/naturalist who was also the private secretary to the queen of Prussia. This page was part of the book Natural System of All Known Domestic and Foreign Insects (1783–1806), an 11-volume set that formed one of the most […]

Meet Consul fabius, the Tiger Leafwing. This butterfly belongs to a group with camouflaged undersides that make them appear as mere dead leaves when resting. The Tiger Leafwing species has a second disguise as well. When flying, its boldly patterned topside causes it to resemble another species – the Tiger Longwing. All longwing butterflies are […]

This elegant group of insects is a detail from an engraving by George Wolfgang Knorr from the 1771 book Deliciae Naturae Selectae, coauthored with Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller. Knorr’s illustrations are based on specimens found in European cabinets of curiosity and other Dutch and German natural history collections of his era. In this view, a […]

This is a marine organism magnified 100 times. The black-and-white scanning electron microscope view reveals the calcium carbonate skeleton of Cradoscrupocellaria tenuirostris. It’s a bryozoan – one of a staggeringly diverse group with about 30,000 species worldwide. We shared a different one back in March. All bryozoans are made up of a series of compartmented […]

If this curious pattern looks familiar, perhaps it reminds you of something you’ve seen at the Sea Center on Stearns Wharf. The life-size model of an adult Gray Whale is speckled with clusters of whale barnacles. These are small invertebrates that hitch a ride on the world’s biggest vertebrates. As the whale swims, they filter-feed […]

The upper wings of the Gulf Fritillary (Dione vanillae) are a brilliant red-orange. This specimen on exhibit at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History reveals the glamorous silver spots hidden on the underside. Another neat feature of this view is the leg arrangement distinctive to the family Nymphalidae or brush-footed butterflies. Almost all adult insects […]

Though plantlike in appearance, this is actually a specimen of a soft-coral colonial animal. It’s Eugorgia daniana, a species of gorgonian. Unlike their hard-coral cousins, gorgonians don’t build reefs but are still capable of creating impressive structures. A gorgonian’s body has a firm internal axis that looks like a dead tree. Depending on the type […]

This vivid orange butterfly is Anaea andria (formerly Paphia troglodyta). The image is mostly a real butterfly, preserved by a unique type of print: the lepidochrome. They are made by pressing a prepared specimen of a butterfly or moth onto printing paper treated with a thin coat of gum arabic adhesive. The body of the […]

Most natural history museum collections are organized by the evolutionary relationships between species. Many drawers provide an in-depth view of a particular species or genus. This drawer is different: it’s what curators call a synoptic collection because it provides an overview of something – in this case, moth species found in Ventura County. These moths […]

This slice of a shell in the collections behind the scenes at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History reveals the chambers of an animal sometimes known as the chambered nautilus. A cephalopod mollusk like the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish, the nautilus is easily distinguished from these relatives by its hard outer shell. The animal develops […]

This detail is from a 1658 edition of a work that began in the late 1500s: The Theater of Insects, or Lesser Living Creatures by British physician Thomas Moffet. Originally published in Latin, it was translated into English and appended to the back of Edward Topsell’s History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents. That enormous tome […]

These strikingly green shells belong to the Emerald Green Snail, Papustyla pulcherrima. The species is endemic to (only found on) Manus Island off the shores of Papua New Guinea. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as near threatened. Habitat destruction is the primary threat, as the rainforest trees the species relies […]

This elegant hand-colored engraving is now on display in The Collectors: A Life in Lepidoptera at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. It’s one of many antique natural history prints that collectively depict how the science of entomology has been furthered by the passion of collectors and the skill of artists. The butterflies pictured here […]

Looking at this moth “picture” may topple you into the uncanny valley – it’s mostly a real moth, from a species now known as Hyalophora cecropia. This page from a rare book in the library at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History features an astounding type of print: a lepidochrome. For each image, a prepared […]

You’re looking down the asymmetrical blowhole of a Dwarf Sperm Whale (Kogia sima), a small, toothed whale that is rarely seen because of its cryptic lifestyle. Adults of this species max out at under nine feet in length. If this skull seems a bit dolphinesque to you, it might interest you to know that dolphins […]

These are the dragonesque jaws of a Chinese Alligator. What’s that bumpy, strikingly porous texture on the bone? Since this texture is a feature that has convergently evolved time and again – especially in snappy swamp things – its potential benefit is an area of ongoing research. Blood vessels would have passed through many of […]

This skull may look strangely smooth in front. This animal only has molars, with no teeth in the front of their jaws. It’s the skull of a manatee, whose prehensile lips make possible the gentle nibbling of seagrass. Their teeth emerge at the back of the jaw, slowly advance, and fall out, to be replaced […]

No, this isn’t a collection of antique corn dogs – it’s a scientifically valuable record of regional biodiversity. These are Botta’s Pocket Gopher (Thomomys bottae) specimens in the Vertebrate Zoology Collections at Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. To the consternation of many farmers and gardeners, gophers seem particularly abundant in the region right now, […]

This beetle flew around the South American rainforest hoping to smell a dead mouse. He used his horny protuberances to fight off other males and control the carrion. Following this adventurism he might mate with a female, because who can resist a guy with a dead mouse? Together, they’d bury the body and she’d lay […]

This three-inch-long Joro Spider (Trichonephila clavata) lurked in the manicured landscaping at a high-end coastal business in Santa Barbara County. Although harmless to humans, it is a potentially invasive species. There is some evidence it can outcompete native orb-weavers in southeastern North America. Native to east Asia, the species was observed in Georgia in 2014, […]

Each segment in this elegant structure is a chamber that once sheltered an individual animal. In effect, it’s an apartment block just a millimeter wide. The image is black-and-white because it was taken with a scanning electron microscope, a device that creates images of tiny objects by bombarding them with electrons rather than sensing visible […]

Did you think this was a Dodo? You’re not a dodo for thinking so. The bird depicted in this chromolithograph is the famous Dodo’s closest relative, the Rodrigues Solitaire. Both species of flightless birds are now extinct. François Leguat was marooned on the island of Rodrigues in the 1690s and described the Rodrigues Solitaire in […]

Pierre-Joseph Redouté was among the great flower painters of any age. During Napoleon’s reign he was commissioned to paint the roses in Empress Josephine’s garden at Château de Malmaison, her villa outside of Paris. She was devoted to horticulture and filled gardens with both native and exotic roses. Redouté’s fine detailed watercolors were translated into […]

German physician and botanist, Leonhart Fuchs published De Historia Stirpium (On the History of Plants) in 1543. The celebrated and much reprinted work was a foundation of modern botany. Fuchs’ herbal tome was illustrated with full page woodcut illustrations. Unusually for that time, it gave credit to the artisans who had drawn the plants, cut […]

Flamingos famously feed with their heads upside-down, filtering algae, brine shrimp, and other food from shallow water. A closer look at the beak here reveals filtering structures composed of keratin, the same protein that makes up hair, hooves, horns, etc. This skull of a Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) is among over 44,000 specimens curated by […]

It’s the time of year when Wood Ducks pair up! Audubon painted this lively image in New Orleans in 1821. He dramatized the courtship and nesting habits of this species while showing the remarkable patterns and colors of their feathers. The Wood Ducks are from the Museum’s collection of prints from the American edition of […]

Daniel Giraud Elliot was the preeminent American ornithologist of the late 19th century. He was a founder of the American Museum of Natural History and later served as curator of zoology at the Field Museum in Chicago. Using his personal fortune, he published lavishly illustrated books on birds and animals. The illustrations were executed first […]

In December and January each year, certain beaches on the Channel Islands and other protected parts of California’s coast become sites of noisy and dramatic conflict. It’s the beginning of breeding season for the Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga angustirostris). During the early part of the breeding season, the huge adult males – known as bulls […]

Considered critically endangered today, the Kākāpō is a nocturnal flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. Captured in a hand-colored lithograph, this particular Kākāpō belongs to the 1873 book A History of the Birds of New Zealand by Walter Lawry Buller. Buller wrote from a desire to record a complete life history of his homeland’s interesting […]

This is not a craft project; it’s a natural defense! As they go through life, marine snails in the genus Xenophora adhere things to their shells, presumably making them harder to eat and maybe even harder to identify as a potential meal. The one at lower right includes the long, straight spine of a sea […]

Most museum drawers don’t look anything like this. To help researchers find the specimens they need to consult, a typical drawer of specimens is organized based on how organisms are related to each other, and therefore contains specimens that look similar. This feast for the eyes represents a slice of the mollusk marine diversity preserved […]

This is Ficus eospila, a carnivorous snail from the fig shell group with a dazzling foot like the train of a black-and-white ball gown. Howard/Berry Curator of Malacology Henry W. Chaney, Ph.D. photographed this individual on a 1993 collecting trip in Western Australia with Barry Wilson PhD then at work on the two-volume compendium, Australian […]

It may look small next to a pencil, but this skull is big, for a bat. It belongs to Eumops perotis, the largest bat species in the United States. These helpful insect-eaters are strong fliers but may face difficulties from declining water sources. This one was found dead and contributed to Santa Barbara Museum of […]

A splendid menagerie of natural history specimens filled four large volumes of Albertus Seba’s 18th century publication Thesaurus or Cabinet of Curiosities. A Dutch pharmacist and collector of curiosities, Seba amassed a vast collection of exotic natural objects by trading medicine and services to sailors at the port of Amsterdam as ships arrived from the […]

This specimen of a marlinspike shell (Terebra maculata) has sentimental and historic significance, which makes it a favorite of Associate Curator Vanessa Delnavaz, MA. The shell comes with a label handwritten by S. Stillman Berry: “This poor battered shell is kept for reasons of sentiment. It has been in our family at least 110 years… […]

September 21–27 is Sea Otter Awareness Week. Were you aware that a California Sea Otter’s teeth can turn purple from eating urchins? This skull clearly shows how the animal provided a helpful service to the kelp forest. When there are too many urchins, the urchins can eat all the available kelp, which can negatively affect […]