American Museum of Natural History

It’s time for Fossil Friday! If you’ve been inside the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins, you may have noticed this marine reptile hanging overhead. Meet Thalassomedon haringtoni, a long-necked plesiosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous some 85 million years ago. This behemoth had a relatively small head and many sharp teeth. Its long, flexible neck probably helped in grasping rapidly moving prey. Plesiosaurs, a group related to lizards, lived in the sea. Although they weren’t dinosaurs, they became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous around 65 million years ago, at the same time as the non-avian dinosaurs. Photo: ? AMNH #museums #naturalhistory #fossils #paleontology #plesiosaur

?Se ha preguntado qué aspecto tiene el universo fuera del sistema solar o incluso a millones de a?os luz de la Tierra??únase a?Genaro Suarez, investigador posdoctoral del Departamento de Astrofísica, en un viaje por el universo observable y más allá del cielo estrellado hacia distancias inconmensurables. Boletos: https://bit.ly/3ZjitwA #astronomía #museos

Have you wondered what the universe looks like outside the solar system—or even millions of light years from Earth??Find out at the next Astronomy Live on Wednesday, December 17! Join Assistant Director of the Hayden Planetarium?Brian Abbott?on a journey through the observable universe.?He’ll guide you beyond our familiar, starry night sky to explore unfathomable distances. For more details and to RSVP, visit: https://bit.ly/4eN4mUM #astronomy #space #spaceexoloration #thingstodoinnyc #museums

Don’t mess with this fish! For Fossil Friday, meet Dunkleosteus terrelli. It lived some 360 million years ago during the Devonian. Scientists think it was one of the first large jawed vertebrates in the ocean and an aggressive predator. The razor-sharp edges of bones in its jaws served as cutters, and as they rubbed against each other, the opposing jaw blades acted like self-sharpening shears. These bones continued to grow as they were worn down by use. See this specimen up close in the Museum’s Hall of Vertebrate Origins! Plan your visit: https://bit.ly/4brkWaP Photo: Image no. ptc-5861 ? AMNH Library #fossils #paleontology #fish #museums

Join us on Wednesday, December 4, for the next SciCafe at the Museum! Homa Hosseinmardi, assistant professor in the UCLA College of Social Sciences, and?John Jost, professor and co-director of the Center for Social and Political Behavior at New York University, will explore the “how” and “why” of the ways in which society interacts with digital tools, including social media, and?how they play a role in rising social and political divisions. SciCafe is 21+ and free with RSVP. For more details and to RSVP, visit: https://bit.ly/4hNTZTl

Educators: On Tuesday, November 19, join us for a virtual talk with John Herrington, PhD, retired U.S. Navy Commander and former NASA Astronaut, who made history as the first citizen of a federally recognized Native American tribe (Chickasaw Nation) to travel to space in 2002. Commander Herrington will trace his journey on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, share details about his spacewalks, and discuss the "overview effect" and how his view of Earth and climate was transformed by his time in space. This is a free online event for teachers—and one hour of CTLE credit is available! Details: https://bit.ly/4hBKhDo #spaceexploration #astronomy #stem #teachers

Science news! A team of researchers led by the Museum and Columbia University has developed a new tool that can aid in the early detection of COVID-19 variants. The new surveillance tool, which tracks information diversity across genomes, could also be applied more broadly for other emerging viruses. The researchers point to the software’s ability to detect new variants in wastewater as a particularly impactful potential application. “Speed is key to responding to these evolving strains,” added Apurva Narechania, a senior bioinformaticist in the Museum’s Institute for Comparative Genomics and lead author of the study, which is published this week in the journal?Genome Research. Learn more about this new software, now on GitHub and freely available to non-commercial entities, in our latest blog post: https://bit.ly/3C3YGry Image: NIAID #newresearch #genomics #museums #stem

As the climate crisis intensifies, how can art raise awareness of its causes and consequences and inspire solutions and action??Join us on Wednesday, November 13, for a conversation with Maya Lin, world-renowned sculptor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Museum President Sean Decatur as they explore the powerful role of art, including Lin’s last memorial, an environmental initiative called?What is Missing? For more details and to RSVP, visit: https://bit.ly/3UebMJf #thignstodoinnyc #museums #art #science

?? Happy Halloween from your friends at the Museum! Are you ready to roar into the holiday like a T. rex? With 4-ft- (1.2-m-) long jaws and powerful bone-crushing teeth, T. rex was one of the largest and most fearsome carnivores of all time. In fact, this dinosaur could bite with about 7,800 pounds of force (34,500 N)—the equivalent to the weight of three cars! No living animal, and few extinct ones, could rival its bite. T. rex didn’t chop or grind its food; it swallowed chunks whole… Photo: A. Keding / ? AMNH #museums #dinosaurs #trex #paleontology #fossils

From October 26 to November 3, the Museum is an early voting site for certain electoral districts in Manhattan. Find your early voting site on the NYC Board of Elections website: https://lnkd.in/dShPBxX Early voters should enter the Museum through the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation at 415 Columbus Avenue. Photos: ? AMNH #museums #nyc #newyorkcity #earlyvoting