Life
Some of these Smithsonian secrets might just blow your mind
Millions of treasures stashed in this museum storage site — open only to select visitors — tell the history of Earth's inhabitants.
By Meghan Rosen
HS-LS4-1
Communicate scientific information that common ancestry and biological evolution are supported by multiple lines of empirical evidence.
More Stories in HS-LS4-1
- Animals
Mummies suggest a way to help reintroduce cheetahs to Arabia
DNA from Arabian cheetah remains reveals that these now-extinct populations might be replaced by rewilding close cheetah relatives from northwest Africa.
- Archaeology
Neandertals used fire-making tools 400,000 years ago
Flint, iron pyrite and fire residues found at an ancient site in England offer the earliest clear evidence of people lighting fires.
- Fossils
Let’s learn about Tyrannosaurus rex
These fearsome predators truly were enormous — with the bone-crushing bite power to match.
- Animals
RNA from mummified woolly mammoth is the oldest ever recovered
Genetic details from the animal, named Yuka, give a snapshot into its last moments alive. The mammoth had been preserved in permafrost for 40,000 years.
- Fossils
Here’s why ammolite gems have a rainbow shimmer
The fossils’ fabulous colors arise from delicate assemblies of crystal plates.
- Life
Scientists Say: Taxonomy
This field of study does more than just organize living things. It also reflects the history of life's evolution.
- Fossils
Newfound fossil is not a teen T. rex but a whole new species
Now known as Nanotyrannus, this mini dino could have roamed the late Cretaceous alongside T. rex.
- Humans
Smoke-dried mummies found in Southeast Asia are the oldest known
The corpses had been slow-dried over fires 12,000 years ago — millennia before Egyptians began mummifying their dead.
- Archaeology
Knotted strands of 500-year-old hair tell a surprising story
Used in a device called a khipu, the hair reveals the owner’s simple diet. Those data now suggest that in Incan society, even some commoners kept records.
