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Our research collections include specimens from each of the world’s oceans and all seven continents. Take a peek at some of our oldest, rarest, and most amazing finds.
Explore our collections in an interactive virtual tour produced by the San Francisco Chronicle.
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A 3.7-billion-year-old piece of space history is on exhibit at the Academy—no giant leaps required.
The Etendeka round-eared sengi was recently discovered by the Academy's own Jack Dumbacher.
Hunting and habitat destruction quickly drove the passenger pigeon to extinction, but can we bring them back?
Atlas moths are famous for the markings on their wings that bear an uncanny resemblance to cobra heads.
Anglerfish live in the depths of the Pacific Ocean and use a bioluminescent bulb to attract prey.
Thought to now be extinct in the wild, the few Deppea splendens left are the legacy of Academy botanists.
Once one of the most common creatures in the Sea of Cortez, the gulf sun star is rarely seen today.
Monarch was one of the last California grizzly bears. Find him on exhibit in California: State of Nature.
In 2014, Academy researcher Dave Ebert added this deepwater sawshark to his list of new species discoveries.
![Coco de Mer By Didier Descouens (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://calendar.calacademy.org/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_square_460px/public/assets/images/KW_IMAGES_DO_NOT_USE/coco_de_mer_-_bot.2007.26.21.jpg?itok=-sQZ1CTN&c=0b672f4fc775307c939e67b7b954d5bd)
This flowering palm is a plant kingdom record-holder, boasting the world's heaviest seeds.
The giant hawkmoth was discovered in 1882. Its existence, however, was predicted 20 years earlier.