The Museum’s Origami Tree opens to visitors today—come get into the holiday spirit! The theme of this year’s 13-ft (4-m) tree is Proboscideans on Parade, featuring garlands and origami models inspired by the new exhibition The Secret World of Elephants. It’s adorned with more than 1,000 origami models, including wooly mammoths and iconic Museum exhibits like the Blue Whale and Tyrannosaurus rex.
Produced in partnership with OrigamiUSA, the tree is delightfully decorated with hand-folded paper models created by local, national, and international origami artists.
Photo: Alvaro Keding / © AMNH
🧬DNA sequencing has revealed that elephants belong in a superorder called Afrotheria—meet their closest relatives!
🐘Learn more at the Museum’s new exhibition The Secret World of Elephants. Discover new science about both ancient and modern elephants, see full-scale models of proboscideans, and more.
🦃Visiting the Museum this Thanksgiving? Best availability is on Monday and Tuesday of that week. Here are a few tips!
During the Ice Age, between 1.8 million and 11,700 years ago, dozens of different elephant relatives still roamed the globe—including mammoths and mastodons. But by the end of that period, extinctions had wiped out most giant mammals across the world. Today, only three elephant species remain: African savanna elephants, African forest elephants, and Asian elephants.
Learn more at the Museum’s new exhibition The Secret World of Elephants, now open! Discover new science about both ancient and modern elephants, see full-scale models of proboscideans, and explore humanity’s relationship with elephants—including conflict and conservation.
Photo: Alvaro Keding/© AMNH
This Fossil Friday, meet the Warren mastodon: the first complete American mastodon (Mammut americanum) skeleton found in the United States! This fossilized proboscidean was discovered in a bog in Newburgh, New York in 1845. It was remarkable for being preserved in the position in which it had died some 11,000 years ago—standing upright with its legs thrust forward and its head tilted upward, likely gasping for air under mud in which it had become mired.
Photo: Image no. 35140 / © AMNH Library (circa 1906)
🐘 Elephants are part of a group called proboscideans, named for their proboscis, or trunk. Learn more about elephants and their relatives in The Secret Life of Elephants, open on November 13!
🦣 Did you know? Like musk oxen today, scientists think mammoths grew thick coats of underfur during winter and then shed them in the spring. Long outer, or guard, hairs are often found scattered about in mammoth sites. You can get a close look at this life-size mammoth model in the Museum’s upcoming exhibition: The Secret World of Elephants. Join today! Photo: A. Keding / © AMNH
🐘 Did you know that elephants can “hear” with their feet? Or that they have 40,000 muscles in their trunks? What you ~don’t~ know about these charismatic giants might surprise you. Discover 6 fun facts! 🌟 Learn more at the Museum’s upcoming exhibition The Secret World of Elephants, opening November 13! Can’t wait? Museum Members see it first.