The Field Museum

Venoms vs. Poisons

Illustration of a large, shell-less turtle with a rounded body and long tail, swimming underwater. The sea floor appears rocky, with some grasses.

This Turtle Had No Shell, but the First Toothless Beak

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A brown lemur sitting in a tree, staring ahead with wide eyes.

Lemurs Are Weird Because Madagascar’s Fruit Is Weird

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Photo: Luca Santini

Lemurs Are Weird Because Madagascar's Fruit Is Weird

Collecting in Vietnam: The Search for Millipedes

Close-up of a white clam with a long arm protruding from its shell, on a black background

The Chemosynthesis Hypothesis: Do Clams and Bacteria Work Together?

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Dorsal view of Xylophaga dorsalis shell and body, with g pointing to white spots.

Black and white microscope image of something with hard ridges and soft fringe

Small Millipedes Impact the Earth in a Big Way

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Scanning electron microscope image of a millipede mandible.

Illustration of large orange octopus; illustration from different angles of a pink speckled octopus

Cephalopods to Wrap Your Head Around

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Left: Illustration of Polypus levis (Benthoctopus levis). Right: Illustration of Eledonella pygmaea (Bolitaena pygmaea). Both images from The Cephalopoda by Carl Chun, via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

A skunk with a white zigzag pattern walking on a log

Spotted Skunk Evolution Driven by Climate Change

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© Robby Heischman

Black and white dinosaur skeleton, with an inset of its small arm and hand

Image modified from Krause et al., 2007), and the inset showcasing a 3D model of the oddly reduced forelimb (image modified from Burch and Carrano, 2012.

Let's Lend These Dinosaurs a Hand

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A woman smiling at the camera, standing in a green field with mountains in the background

Women in Science: Corrie Moreau, Evolutionary Biologist and Entomologist

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Collecting ants in the Chiricahua desert in Arizona as part of a field course Corrie helps teach each summer.

Left: Two green turtles on a log in a lake with green algae. Right: A large brown turtle with a tall shell sitting among rocks and grass.

What Do We Mean by “Theory” in Science?

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A large T. rex skeleton on display in a museum, with people looking at it and columns in the background

Tyrannosaur Relatives of SUE

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The Evolution of Human Birth

Brightly colored iridescent feathers, ranging from bright blue and green to yellow and orange.

Feathers and Our Feathered Friends

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Feathers of a Nicobar Pigeon.

Media

2016 By The Numbers

Eight of the Most Nightmarish Prehistoric Animals

Illustration of a black squid with red eyes

Inside the World of the Elusive Vampire Squid

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An artist's rendering of an prehistoric carnivore called a beardog, with it's mouth open reaching for an insect.

Fossil "Beardogs" Shed Light On Evolution Of Dogs

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© Monica Jurik, The Field Museum

A tiny primate, the Goodman's mouse lemur, held in a person's hand.

Ridiculously Cute Mouse Lemurs Hold Key To Madagascar’s Past

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A Goodman’s mouse lemur, named for study co-author Steve Goodman, was one of the species studied. The lemur’s scientific name is Microcebus lehilahytsara—“lehilahytsara” is Malagasy for “good man,” after Steve. , Zoo Zurich

Ridiculously Cute Mouse Lemurs Hold Key To Madagascar's Past

An artist's rendering of a small dinosaur being chased through a field by two larger dinosaurs, while two other small dinosaurs run away in the background.

Newly-discovered dinosaur had “T. rex arms” that evolved independently

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© Jorge González and Pablo Lara

Two sculptures, created by French paleoartist Elisabeth Daynès, give a breathtakingly lifelike look at human relatives—Homo ergaster and Homo neanderthalensis.

Bringing Neanderthals to Life: Sculptures of Elisabeth Daynès

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Copyright ès — Reconstructions: Elisabeth Daynès Paris

Drawing of an animal that looks like a large cat with small ears and long, sharp teeth

Dueling Sabers: What This Marsupial has in Common With a Cat

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Reconstruction of saber-toothed marsupial Thylacosmilus

An artist's rendering of a Purgatorius unio, a small prehistoric mammal resembling a squirrel.

Mammals began their takeover long before the death of the dinosaurs

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© Nobu Tamura

A fossil of a Sclerocormus parviceps, a sea-dwelling reptile, shown with a ruler to show scale.

Sea-dwelling Reptile Fossil Hints At Rapid Evolution After Mass Extinction

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© Da-yong Jiang

An artistic rendering of an under water scene, featuring the crocodile-sized sea-dwelling reptile, Atopodentatus unicus, swimming with prehistoric fish.

Hammerhead creature was world’s first plant-eating marine reptile

“Hammerhead” creature was world's first plant-eating marine reptile

How to Beat Extinction: Live Fast, Die Young

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Illustration

What is a Species?

Monster Mystery Solved

Tully Monster reconstruction by Sean McMahon

5 Behind-the-Scenes Specimens with Links to Darwin

The Birds and the Bees: Craziest Animal Mating Stories

Of Ivory Gulls and Parasites

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Ivory Gull by Nathan Goldberg

Things seen in the Bird Division #11: 'Til death do us part

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Fire Frogs and Eel-like Amphibians

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“Fire Frogs” and Eel-like Amphibians

Tea Parties, Bird Barf, and Rat Skulls

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“Scarface”: The Dachshund-sized Pre-mammal with a (Possibly) Venomous Bite

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Image for “Scarface”: The Dachshund-sized Pre-mammal with a (Possibly) Venomous Bite

Monsters Storm The Field

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New Discoveries in How Animal Moms-to-Be Feed Their Babies

Lots of animal mothers, including some starfish, give nourishment directly to their unborn babies.

The traveling knot

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Red Knot 1YY, Montrose Beach, Chicago, 22 May 2015, 

Birds get malaria, too

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Who's your daddy? A hybrid duck in Glenview

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Image for Who's your daddy? A hybrid duck in Glenview

What are the feathers in those Amazonian headdresses?

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Evolutionary atlas of Malawian birds

Follow up: A first for Illinois, discovered in the Field Museum's collection

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A first for Illinois, discovered in The Field Museum's collection

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Comparative Gill and Labial Palp Morphology (Mollusca: Bivalvia)

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2010 REU Intern Emily Rudick

A Cassin's Sparrow meets its end a long way from home

Cassin's Sparrow

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Why Sharks?

Fossil Fish, Pt. II: A History

How much science is needed for conservation?

Evolution of Human Reproduction

Mammalian Diversification

The Birds and the Trees

Domestication

Leo on Bioluminescence

A Rose by Any Other Name

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What's in a Name?

Recovering Peregrines with Mary

The Birds In My Backyard

Getting to Know the Deep Sea

A Century of Butterflies and Moths

The Naming of the Shrew

Leavitt's Lichens

Variety is the Spice of Lice

About the Botany Department

My Life as a Malacologist

Cloud Rat

Science at FMNH : Ep. 47 - DNA Residency Showcase

Understanding Turtle Ants

Science at FMNH : Ep. 33 - Floral Beaks and Flower Evolution

A Bird of Paradise with John Bates

Science at FMNH : Ep. 32 - Floral Tubes and Flower Evolution

Science at FMNH : Ep. 31 - Floral Color and Flower Evolution

Science at FMNH : Ep. 30 - Floral Diversity and Pedicularis

Science at FMNH : Ep. 28 - Biodiversity of Marine Mollusks in the Florida Keys

Science at FMNH : Ep. 27 - Museum Collections and the Mammals of Tanzania

Science at FMNH : Ep. 26 - Mammal Conservation in Island Ecosystems

Science at FMNH : Ep. 25 - Exploring Unknown Deep Sea Ecosystems

Science at FMNH : Ep. 24 - Human Impact on Ecosystems

Dwarf Cloud Rat Re-discovered After 112 Years

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Image for Dwarf Cloud Rat Re-discovered After 112 Years

Science at FMNH : Ep. 21 - Polar Dinosaurs

Fossil Carrion Feeders

Science at FMNH : Ep. 17 - Wyoming 52 million years ago

Science at FMNH : Ep. 16 - Illinois 300 million years ago

Science at FMNH : Ep. 15 - Trilobite Evolution

Science at FMNH : Ep. 11 - Decomposition

Science at FMNH : Ep. 10 - Sexual and Asexual Reproduction in Fungi

Science at FMNH : Ep. 7 - Collecting Birds for Museums

Science at FMNH : Ep. 5 - The Emerging Pathogen Project

Science at FMNH : Ep. 3 - Oil Bodies Inside Early Land Plants

Science at FMNH : Ep. 2 - Environmental Significance of Early Land Plants

Science at FMNH : Ep. 1 - Early Land Plants

Mazon Creek Fossil Invertebrates

Darwin and museum collections

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The Bivalve Tree of Life

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2011 REU Intern Hannah Wirtshafter

Calibrating phylogenies: are we using the right fossils?

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2011 REU Intern Gregor-Fausto Siegmund

Evolution and patterns of reproduction in Philippine mammals

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2010 REU Intern Vincent Fitzpatrick

The evolution of an ant-plant mutualism

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2010 REU Intern Sara Zufan

Evolutionary Biology

Explore this topic through the content here and the halls of the Museum.

Articles and videos

Venoms vs. Poisons

This Turtle Had No Shell, but the First Toothless Beak

Lemurs Are Weird Because Madagascar's Fruit Is Weird

Related Projects

Fishes Dried Skeleton Collection

Fishes Collection

Bird Egg Collection

People

Diego Santana Silva

Lance Grande

Richard Ree

Adam Ferguson

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Mammals

Birds

Pritzker DNA Lab

Geology

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Remembering Bill Stanley