What if you could open up a drawer full of hundreds of pinned insect specimens to study them under a microscope, or unscrew the jar cap to scan a curious creature that swam in the deep sea decades ago? For collectors everywhere, this is a lovely series from the American Museum of Natural History: Shelf Life, episode 1 – 33 Million Things.
From centuries-old specimens to entirely new types of specialized collections like frozen tissues and genomic data, the Museum’s scientific collections (with more than 33,430,000 specimens and artifacts) form an irreplaceable record of life on Earth, the span of geologic time, and knowledge about our vast universe.
33,430,000 specimens and artifacts!!
Related watching, so many videos about museum specimens: 3D scanning an anglerfish’s final meal, Anatomy of Preservation: From a Specimen to an Object of Study, and Preserving the Forest of the Sea.
And deep in the archives, both The Fungarium and Millennium Seed Bank Partnership and Cabinet of Wonders: Alfred Russel Wallace’s personal cabinet.
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