It's time for #TrilobiteTuesday! Over the last three decades, Morocco has emerged as the somewhat unlikely epicenter of worldwide trilobite discoveries. From Lower Cambrian Fallotaspids to an incredible array of unusual Devonian species—many, like this Drotops armatus, featuring outlandish spines and multi-faceted eyes—the sedimentary strata of North Africa has provided a veritable bonanza of bizarre trilobite types. Dozens of previously unknown species have emerged from the rich Paleozoic soils of Morocco, many requiring the delicate work of preparation artisans to free the specimens from their eons-old rock encasements. And while a dearth of scientific research has been done on the preponderance of material found thus far, there are a growing number of paleontologists around the globe who have recently begun to tackle this daunting, yet fascinating task.

It's time for #TrilobiteTuesday! Some of us may imagine that all we need do to find a museum-worthy trilobite is stroll by an appropriately aged sedimentary outcrop. After all, trilobite fossils are omnipresent remnants of creatures that appeared in prodigious numbers throughout the Paleozoic era—a time that traversed more than 270 million years of earth history. But it's not that easy! The fact is that discovering a trilobite usually takes quite a bit more effort than some may realize, and sometimes it requires a little bit of luck. Perhaps the “classic” example of this occurred when renowned paleontologist Charles Walcott stumbled upon the legendary Burgess Shale in British Columbia during the early years of the 20th Century. Story has it that while traversing a narrow path through the mountains in his search for fossil sites, he got off of his horse to examine the animal's injured foot. While looking down, he saw a fossil-bearing chunk of matrix, possibly containing a Kootenia burgessensis, pictured here, which had conveniently tumbled down the cliff-side before coming to rest in prime viewing position. Its discovery motivated Walcott to begin extensively exploring the adjoining mountainside until he found the narrow band of Middle Cambrian rock from which the original trilobite had emerged. The rest, as they say, is history.

The newest episode of Shelf Life explores bat research in Cuba. Take a 360 look as researcher Alexa Sadier from the University of Illinois Urbana examines bat specimens in the Museum’s mammalogy collection. Watch the latest #ShelfLife episode and learn more about bat research.

Season 2 of #ShelfLife takes a look at the many expeditions to sites around the world that have helped to build our amazing collections, and what Museum scientists bring with them to the field. Duct Tape: This is used for nearly everything: from wrapping fossils to marking things in the site to repairing damaged clothing and equipment. In a pinch, it can also be a part of your first aid kit. – Museum paleontologist, Carl Mehling

Science starts when you pack your bags, and before each episode, you’ll be able to take a look at how our researchers and scientists prepare for their travels. Field Book: This is an essential companion for keeping track of specimens, fossil localities, and other information. They often have waterproof pages, because you'll probably get rained on unless you're working in a desert.  – Zac Calamari, Museum Paleontologist. Get packing with Shelf Life.

Among the fossils Museum researchers have discovered in the Gobi is this skull from the dinosaur Haya griva. Explore Museum expeditions to the Gobi in the latest episode of #ShelfLife. 

How to Watch 360 Video

New to 360 video? Here’s a quick primer on how to watch. Check out our new 360 video about fossil hunting in the Gobi from Shelf Life’s Season 2 here. 

NOW PLAYING: #ShelfLife Season 2. Pack your bags for adventure. Explore fantastic stories from more than a century of expeditions that helped build the Museum’s 33 million specimens and artifacts—and find out what scientists are still uncovering about them today. What does it take to describe a new genus, or two, of ancient mammal ancestors? Paleontologists Mike Novacek and Paúl Velazco explain why dental detective work is a big part of the job. 

Science starts when you pack your bags, so here’s some of the gear Museum paleontologists make sure they have on hand in the field—even if they have to sit on their carry-on to make it fit.

Season 2 of the Museum’s acclaimed video series, Shelf Life, is on the way. This year, we’re taking a look at the many expeditions to sites around the world that have helped to build our amazing collections.

Music: “School Trip” by Cesar Gimeno Lavin & Giles Palmer / Warner/Chappell Production Music

In his short but extraordinary life, Frenchman Pierre Belon was a physician, a naturalist and an explorer. From 1546 to 1549 he voyaged across Greece, Turkey and the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In Belon’s time, the term “fishes” included all marine animals, from whales to invertebrates. His book described more than 100 fishes, sharks and marine mammals. He wrote other volumes, based on his travels, about medicinal cures, ancient ruins, and animals and plants, as well as peoples and customs. Before Belon, dolphins and whales often had been represented as fantastical sea monsters. Unlike many writers of his time, Belon relied mostly on his own observations. See more in Opulent Oceans.

In the early months of 2016, Museum Curators Jin Meng and Ross MacPhee, as well as Ph.D.-degree student Abagael West, visited the James Ross Island Group in Antarctica as part of the Antarctic Peninsula Paleontology Project (AP3), and international fossil-finding expedition. AP3 teams spent several weeks divided among field camps at four separate sites, with short trips to other locations by helicopter and Zodiac motorboat.

The glamour of island-hopping by helicopter didn’t diminish the grueling work of finding fossils, a down and dirty exercise pursued on all fours while searching through frigid, densely packed mud, sand, and gravel. Read more about the expedition on our blog. 

Collecting Texts in Textiles

The latest episode of the web series Shelf Life features a unique effort by Museum researchers to use cutting-edge DNA sequencing methods to study how a group of ancient languages evolved and spread.  

But there are also ongoing studies of contemporary cultures, and “languages” are still being added to the Museum’s robust ethnographic collections in various ways.

Image of Babouche Slippers © Document Journal

Jacklyn Lacey, curatorial associate in the Division of Anthropology, and Assistant Curator Alex de Voogt have been collecting cultural objects that incorporate text as part of their work in sub-Saharan Africa for the past four years. Over the past year, they have brought back several items that offer interesting insights about contemporary African cultures.

Sometimes, text is an integral and intentional part of an object. That’s the case with this textile collected by de Voogt, which features “V8” and other text referencing high-powered luxury automobiles. In other objects, though, script may make a less direct statement.

Read more on the Museum blog. 

In the fall of 2014, a team of vertebrate specialists from the Museum headed to one of the most remote areas in the world in search of new species and specimens on the Explore21 Papua New Guinea expedition. In this SciCafe, Brett Benz, Paul Sweet, and Christopher Raxworthy talk about the discoveries they made, as well as the adventures they had along the way.

Download this lecture as a podcast, and read field posts from this expedition.

The American Museum of Natural History is partnering with Google to bring‪ Expeditions‬ to classrooms. With the help of Google Cardboard, Expeditions allows teachers to make their curriculum come alive by taking their students on field trips to almost anywhere they can imagine. Learn more about this program.

Oh boy, the weekend is here! Head to the Museum and explore your world, from the deep sea to outer space. 

Here are some highlights from the past week:

Have a great weekend!

GIF from 1920's Museum archival footage.

This week, a team of vertebrate specialists from the Museum—Brett Benz, Chris Raxworthy, Paul Sweet, and Neil Duncan—are heading out to one of the most remote areas in the world in search of new species and specimens on the Explore21 Papua New Guinea expedition.

They are following in the footsteps of biologist Ernst Mayr, who made the first trip to New Guinea on behalf of the Museum in 1927. The Pacific island, which today consists of Indonesian provinces in the west and the country of Papua New Guinea in the east, has a disproportionately rich flora and fauna: about 7 percent of the world’s species live in an area that is only approximately 0.5 percent of the Earth’s land mass.

Assuming his laptop survives the rain and humidity, team member Paul Sweet will be blogging intrepidly from the field—and finding his way from underneath dense canopy cover to send back posts over a satellite phone. Sweet answered a few questions on the eve of the team’s departure. 

Why Papua New Guinea? What do you hope to find?

We’re undertaking intensive biodiversity surveys in one of the most remote and least studied regions of the globe: the Strickland-Lagaip Divide in Papua New Guinea. We will be collecting birds, mammals, herps [reptiles and amphibians], as well as their parasites and viruses. We’re anticipating discovering new species of reptiles and amphibians, parasites, and viruses. Current estimates are that less than half of the amphibian species in Papua New Guinea have been discovered.

What are some of the more unusual animals you expect to see on this trip?

Perhaps the strangest mammal we may encounter is the long-beaked echidna, a spiny monotreme— a mammal that lays eggs. We may also see some of the many diverse marsupials such as tree kangaroos, bandicoots, quolls, and dunnarts. The fruit bats known as flying foxes that occur in New Guinea are some of the world’s largest.

Read the complete interview on the Museum blog. 

Fieldwork Journal: Back Home

Jack Tseng and Camille Grohé, postdoctoral fellows in the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, have been blogging from the field during an expedition to Inner Mongolia. Now that they are back in New York City, they’ve been going over the fruits of their labor from the two and a half weeks in the Gobi.

Read a rundown of the most significant discoveries they made during the trip, including many exciting fossils and remnants from a previous Museum expedition. 

Read the full story on the Museum blog.