Tag archives: history museum

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 […]

Enlightenment intellectual Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, undertook to describe and classify the royal collections of France and to relate his findings to the broader laws of nature. His book Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux was a landmark in the science of ornithology and helped broaden contemporary interest in natural history. François-Nicolas Martinet engraved the plates […]

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 […]