Shelf Life from AMNH

Can’t get to New York to visit the American Museum of Natural History? No problem! We invite you to take a virtual trip behind the scenes. In this the first episode of Shelf Life from AMNH, you can walk in the shoes of a research scientist and explore the enormous collection of specimens, many of which aren’t on public display.

Shelf Life from AMNH is a video series for curious minds—opening doors, pulling out drawers, and taking the lids off some of the incredible, rarely-seen items in the American Museum of Natural History.

The Salamander-Algae Symbiotic Relationship

Shelf Life Video: The Salamander-Algae Symbiotic Relationship

What happens inside a Salamander egg? How does the embryo interact with its environment? Find out in this video, which is another in the Shelf Life series from the American Museum of Natural History. Scientists ...
Dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch

Shelf Life Video: The Dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch

Dinosaurs' fossils have attracted paleontologists to the Badlands of Ghost Ranch, NM, since 1881. Here, they have found the best place to find early carnivorous dinosaurs in the world. This video is another in the ...
Shelf Life Video: Time Travel to Stars

Shelf Life Video: Time Travel to Stars

With the help of high school students, scientists at The American Museum of Natural History are creating an online catalog of stars' distances and relative positions. This video is another in the Shelf Life series ...
Screening Biodiversity

Shelf Life Video: Screening Biodiversity

Scientists at The American Museum of Natural History explain why managing biodiversity is a key component in managing endangered species. This video is another in the Shelf Life series from the American Museum of Natural ...
Bats, Cuba

Shelf Life Video: Into the Island of Bats

The island of Cuba is a key piece of the puzzle for two researchers who are studying bats and trying to understand biodiversity in the Caribbean. Find out why on an expedition with mammalogists J ...
Shelf Life Video: Fossils in the Gobi Desert

Shelf Life Video: Fossils in the Gobi Desert

It’s been nearly a century since the Museum began their explorations of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert—a vast and imposing landscape that occupies an unparalleled space in the scientific record. The American Museum of Natural History gives ...
mass extinctions

Six Extinctions in Six Minutes: Shelf Life Video

Learn about six mass) extinctions in 440 million years, all in one video from the American Museum of Natural History All things must pass. But the idea that a species could go extinct is a ...
Green Grow the Salamanders

Green Grow the Salamanders: Shelf Life Video

Many people visit the American Museum of Natural History to view the preserved specimens of dinosaurs and extinct animals, but the Museum also has a collection of about 80 live cultures of microorganisms, including algae ...
Giant Squid (Photo ©AMNH/P.Rollins)

Shelf Life Episode 8: Voyage of the Giant Squid

Find out how natural history museum staff transport the body of a giant squid. These animals grow to the size of a school bus, or longer. This episode of the Shelf Life video series focuses ...
stargazing

Stargazing Across Time: Shelf Life Episode 5

 Stargazing For eons, humanity has been fascinated by the stars. From sundials to telescopes, episode five of the Shelf Life series showcases not only the tools that have been used to observe the sky throughout history ...

Invertebrates make up more than 90 percent of all living animal species, so it’s not surprising they comprise the museum’s largest collection, which consists of more than 23 million invertebrate specimens.

The museum’s collections include more than 33,430,000 items, from centuries-old specimens and artifacts (such as fish and birds) to entirely new types of specialized collections (such as frozen tissue samples and genomic data). Combined, these collections form an irreplaceable record of life on Earth, the span of geologic time, and knowledge about our vast universe.

The objects in this collection fall into the categories of invertebrate zoology, vertebrate zoology, paleontology, anthropology, and physical sciences (a category which includes a small assortment of frozen tissues).

Most visitors to the museum flock to the fourth floor to see the dinosaurs. The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is just one specimen in the largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the world. The paleontology collection is also notable for its mammal fossils, the largest collection of its type anywhere.

“A research collection is a place of discovery. You can walk around the corner and see something no one’s quite observed that way before,” says Michael Novacek, Provost of Science and Curator, Division of Paleontology.

About the Museum

Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has advanced its global mission to discover, interpret, and disseminate information about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe through a wide-ranging program of scientific research, education, and exhibition.

Shelf Life from AMNH Episode List

SHELF LIFE EPISODE 1: 33 MILLION THINGS

SHELF LIFE, EPISODE 2: TURTLES AND TAXONOMY

SKULL OF THE OLINGUITO: SHELF LIFE EPISODE 4

STARGAZING ACROSS TIME: SHELF LIFE EPISODE 5

GREEN GROW THE SALAMANDERS: SHELF LIFE VIDEO

SIX EXTINCTIONS IN SIX MINUTES: SHELF LIFE VIDEO

SHELF LIFE VIDEO: FOSSILS IN THE GOBI DESERT

SHELF LIFE VIDEO: INTO THE ISLAND OF BATS

SHELF LIFE VIDEO: SCREENING BIODIVERSITY

SHELF LIFE VIDEO: TIME TRAVEL TO STARS

SHELF LIFE VIDEO: THE DINOSAURS OF GHOST RANCH

SHELF LIFE VIDEO: THE SALAMANDER-ALGAE SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP