Moths video by Dr. Adrian Smith

New video: 7 Spectacular Moths in Slow Motion!

August 6, 2021

Dr. Adrian Smith, Head of the Museum’s Evolutionary Biology & Behavior Research Lab, has posted a new video showing off seven moths flying in slow motion. To quote Dr. Smith, “Whose day isn’t gonna be better after watching a pink and yellow Rosy Maple Moth fly in super-slow motion?” Take-off flight sequences captured at 6,000… Read More >


Shells of Eastern Mediterranean freshwater mussels within the Unioninae subfamily. (From the paper, Figure 5.)

Museum researcher co-authors paper on Eastern Mediterranean freshwater mussels

August 5, 2021

Shells of Eastern Mediterranean freshwater mussels within the Unioninae subfamily. Click to enlarge. Located at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean is a region of high diversity of freshwater mussels, including those that occur nowhere else. This is due to their evolutionary histories and ecological and geographical settings, which have changed… Read More >


Artistic interpretation of Troodon coughing up a bone-bearing gastric pellet. Illustration: Clarissa Koos.

Potential Troodon gastric pellets

August 4, 2021

Artistic interpretation of Troodon coughing up a bone-bearing gastric pellet. Illustration: Clarissa Koos. A new study led by William Freimuth, a PhD student of NCMNS Head of Paleontology Lindsay Zanno, and a team of paleontologists from Montana State University and the University of Washington describes Cretaceous mammals in fossilized gastric pellets potentially produced by the… Read More >


Venus flytrap

Captivating Carnivores: The Venus Flytrap

By Amanda Rossillo, Whiteville intern Wetlands are an essential component of southeastern North Carolina’s landscape. Swamps, lakes, and other wetland habitats provide important services to people and the natural world, from filtering pollutants and preventing floods to serving as homes for fish and wildlife. In this column, we’ll take deep dives into some of the… Read More >


The snout of Impidens compared with the complete skull of its much smaller relative Trirachodon. Photo: Dr. Christian Kammerer.

Giant protomammal snout reveals new Triassic top predator

July 29, 2021

The snout of Impidens compared with the complete skull of its much smaller relative Trirachodon. Photo: Dr. Christian Kammerer/NCMNS. Click to enlarge. New research by scientists from the Evolutionary Studies Institute (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Dr. Christian Kammerer (NCMNS Research Curator of Paleontology) has revealed the existence of a new species of giant, predatory cynodont…. Read More >