Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Tar Pits Bring Researchers Together

By Owen Duncan

Something happened about 11–13,000 years ago that drove most large animals in the Americas extinct, dooming the mammoth, mastodon, and saber-toothed cat, among many others. The megafauna catastrophe seen in the Americas also unfolded in other parts of the world, apparently staggered by thousands of years. Scientists have proposed theories about the causes of this Late Pleistocene extinction event, assigning varied degrees of responsibility to climate change and human activity. Reaching scientific consensus around the solution to this whodunnit requires more data about who died when.

Dig into the story

April 18

9:58 AM /

Fall in love with this curious clam

This Clam Wants Your Vote

By Owen Duncan

The female Mysterious Moon Clam glides through life with the two parts of her shell wide open and the tiny male clam riding along on her back. She moves with surprising agility through dark sponge galleries and shrimp burrows. This enigmatic, charismatic species is among the top five animals in the running for International Mollusc of the Year. Scientists here at the Museum hope to secure your vote and win free gene sequencing to better understand how the wide-open clam evolved.

April 10

1:10 PM /

Why We Hate Light Pollution and How We Can Stop It

By Owen Duncan

“Light pollution has such wide-ranging impacts that there is something for everyone to hate about it,” says Mike Wondolowski, a local advocate for dark skies. He’s absolutely right. Wasted light in the outdoors causes a host of side effects for everyone.

Learn and act

March 21

2:19 PM /

Remember Ernestine with us

Remembering Ernestine Ygnacio-DeSoto

By John Johnson, Jan Timbrook, and Owen Duncan

Chumash Elder Ernestine Ygnacio-DeSoto (1938–2026) was an acknowledged force of nature here in the land of her ancestors. She drew on her uniquely lived expertise to serve as a consultant not only for innumerable cultural institutions in Santa Barbara, but for exhibits at the National Museum of the American Indian and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Here at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, she was also a longtime research colleague and a friend. We bonded over the foods we loved, gossip at the basketweaving table, and our shared passion for keeping alive the memories and practices indigenous to this part of the world.

February 05

1:58 PM /

From Bears to Woodrats on Her Winding Journey to Curation

By Owen Duncan

an interview with new Curator of Mammalogy, Ally Coconis, Ph.D.

Owen: How did mammalogy become your focus?

Ally: A love of nature was innate, but I think a focus on mammals came from a mix of opportunity and great mentors. The spark that lit the fire was an internship for wildlife management in Yosemite National Park where the focus is on human-wildlife conflict with bears.

Get to know Dr. Coconis

December 20

2:25 PM /

Meet the Sea Center alumna protecting coral reefs

Policy on Guam’s Coral Reefs

By Fiona Diskin

While only covering less than 1% of the planet, certain ecosystems are home to 25% of the world’s biodiversity. They are some of the planet’s most precious cargo, and in the midst of global change, they require extra protection.

October 21

10:24 AM /

It started with Sea Center Volunteer Ryan Wong...

Tidying Up Our Tides

By Fiona Diskin

Anyone who has had the chance to visit Santa Barbara can recognize it is one of a kind. From the mountains to the ocean, beauty is around every corner, but the community of people is where the real beauty lies. The Santa Barbara community is not ordinary in its devotion to generosity, environmentalism, and enriching the well being of its members. In fact, Santa Barbara has the second highest number of nonprofits per capita in California. Addressing various needs, these organizations keep the town we love alive and thriving; one of these organizations is very close to the heart of the Sea Center: Tidy Seas.

October 14

10:14 AM /

Building Bridges Across Time & Cultures: Anima Mundi & SBMNH

By Anima Mundi and SBMNH staff

The history of collaboration between the Vatican Ethnological Museum (today Anima Mundi) and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) can be traced back to 1984, when SBMNH Curator of Anthropology Travis Hudson, Ph.D., visited Rome to meet with Vatican Missionary Ethnological Museum Head Curator Fr. Joseph Penkowski SVD. Together, Hudson and Penkowski examined objects from California Indigenous communities firsthand, documenting material culture. Although no Chumash baskets were identified, Hudson recognized several baskets from other communities, including Pomo, Paiute and Miwok, contributing to the process of recontextualizing and understanding the collections at the Vatican.

The Rubin Observatory: A New Engine for Discovery

By Jonah Gabriel Haas

Recently, our neighbors at Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) joined us at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for an exciting evening dedicated to one of the most ambitious scientific projects of our time: the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. The event, hosted by LCO scientist Rachel Street, promised to take us “beyond the pretty pictures” and it delivered.

Explore the cosmos

October 04

10:36 AM /

Discover sneaky silk-spinners

She's Here for the Sea Bugs

By Owen Duncan

An interview with visiting Ph.D. candidate Siena McKim, who came to borrow some amphipods from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ)

Owen Duncan: What are amphipods? I feel like they’re a kind of marine crustacean, right?

Siena McKim: Yes. You already know amphipods. If you go to the beach, you have these beach hopper guys hopping around—those are big amphipods. You think they're eating you, but they're not. They're just like, “Are you dead? If you are, I'm going to eat you.” Most amphipods are in the sea.

August 28

3:00 PM /

Dive into Nora's history with White Abalone

The White Abalone Midwife

By Fiona Diskin

Everyone should love the White Abalone; as a keystone species, they maintain our kelp forests, allowing for high biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. They are understory algae grazers known by Nora Frank as the “lawnmowers and Roombas of the sea.” Few people love the White Abalone quite as much as Nora, the current husbandry and data manager of the White Abalone Culture Lab at UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory.

July 25

1:18 PM /

Explore Mars with Ingenuity's chief pilot

Mars Ingenuity Pilot Touches Down at Museum

By Owen Duncan

Fleischmann Auditorium vibrated with excitement like a mission control room before a downlink. The data from another planet came via Santa Barbara local Martin Cacan, Ph.D., who shared true stories from his adventures piloting a plucky little helicopter on Mars: the aptly-named Ingenuity.

July 15

1:00 PM /

New Curator Wants Your Help Finding Insects

By Owen Duncan

An interview with new Schlinger Chair of Entomology Alex Harman, Ph.D.

Owen: You are an all-around naturalist.

Alex: I try to be. When you're outside catching insects, you run into weird-looking snakes, and you hear birds you've never heard before. It was only a matter of time before I got sucked into those other groups. Still working on plants. Plants are tough. There's a lot of plants out there.

Owen: How did entomology become your focus?

Get to know Dr. Harman

July 12

1:32 PM /

Learn more about this visitor from beyond

Las Cumbres Observatory Aids Discovery of Interstellar Comet

By Sandy Seale

A newly discovered speedy visitor from another solar system far, far, away in our galaxy has been confirmed, thanks to the rapid response telescopes of Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO). LCO is a nonprofit corporation based in Goleta, California, dedicated to advancing worldwide understanding of the universe through science with its global network of full robotic optical telescopes. The newfound object is named Comet 3I/ATLAS: “ATLAS” after the astronomical survey that discovered it and “3I” because it is the third such interstellar object to be found.

March 26

2:59 PM /

Uncover the science behind the stars

Not All Novae Are Super: T Coronae Borealis

By Ila Jade Komasa

In the coming months, a very small constellation in the night sky holds the potential for a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event that you can witness yourself. If you’re out stargazing this spring and summer, look for the constellation Corona Borealis, or the Northern Crown. (You’ll find it near Draco and Boötes.) Astronomers predict that sometime soon, an obscure star in this constellation will suddenly go from being invisible to the naked eye to shining as brightly as Polaris!

November 14

1:00 PM /

Read about Largo the snake and his enrichment

Largo’s Long Career: For the Good of Gopher Snakes

By Tessa Cafritz

Some people look at animals in zoos and aquariums and wonder if they need to be there instead of in their natural environments. I can understand that, and as a science educator at the Sea Center, I talk to people with these inquiries every day. It motivates me to illuminate the important roles that animals in human care at educational and research institutions can play.

November 06

1:22 PM /

Get to know the galeommatids

Tiny Clams Have Big Personalities

By Owen Duncan

An interview with Curator Emeritus of Malacology Paul Valentich-Scott

OD: Your recently published study introduced the world to a new species of clam from South Africa. How did this collaboration come about in the first place?

PVS: I’m mostly a Pacific guy, but in 2013 I named a new species off of California and British Columbia, Waldo arthuri, which really caught on in the press. Charles Griffiths, a marine biologist in South Africa and emeritus professor at University of Cape Town, saw this. He emailed me a picture of a sea urchin with tiny little clams all over it, saying, “What is this?” I said, “If you send me some, I can tell you.” He sent them to me, and I didn’t even know the genus. But I could tell it was part of this understudied group, the galeommatids (gal-ee-oh-MAT-ids).

October 16

5:24 PM /

Comet A3 Visible in October

By Ila Jade Komasa

Visible for the next couple weeks is Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. What a mouthful! C/ indicates it is a non-periodic comet, 2023 is the year of discovery, A3 stands for the time of year it was discovered—with A denoting the first half of January and 3 meaning it was the third object discovered during that period—and finally, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS credits the two observatories that discovered the object.

When and where to look

June 06

11:27 AM /