Smithsonian Natural History Museum Tour - Washington, DC

I am here in Washington DC, the nation's capital and home to some of the greatest museums in the whole world. Today we're going to be checking out the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This is a good old-fashioned museum with dinosaur bones, dioramas, all kinds of cool stuff. I've never been to this one before and I'm very excited to take you along with me. Come with me. And here we are Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Let's get a look at this building. Very cool. Let's go inside. So this elephant that we're looking at right here is the largest mounted specimen of an African elephant. It was created in 1955. You really just have to appreciate the scale and size of a creature this big. It's really cool. Okay and the first thing we see as we walk in is this Easter Island moai sculpture. This thing is over a thousand years old. I think these things are amazing. I always see pictures of them and I think this is the first time I've ever seen one in person. Right here we can see this massive quartz crystal cluster. Just look at that. How sparkly and pretty is that? Okay so let's start with the mammal section and see what they have in here. Should be exciting. And right above us we have a pouncing tiger ready to drop on us and tear us limb from limb. And let's see what we have in this case here. So it looks like we have some cute little bats. I like bats. I think they're they're an underappreciated cute animal. Everyone thinks they're creepy but they're actually really cute. And right here we have a walrus and just just look at the size of this thing. You know you don't really grasp just the size of these animals until you see one like this. Here we have a cute little otter. What is that back there? That is a binturong. I have never even heard of that. That is a mammal from, oh it's not telling me where it's from. Well that's a binturong people. There we have a sloth and on top we have a little fox. Over here some some kind of goat. And what's down here looks like a a little lemur. Something like that. And what is this guy? A pacarana? Pacarana. Again, never even heard of that. There's an echidna and I only know about those from Sonic the Hedgehog. And over here we have a gorilla. Just look at that. So this is a tiny little deer known as a munt jack. And over here we have a moose. Again just another massive animal. And this is a Chinese water deer. It has a cute little tusk in its mouth. We have a European mole. And what is that? A streaked tenek. That tiny little mouse porcupine thing. And then over here we have a white rhinoceros. A species that is very endangered. And this is a a pangolin which is sort of like a like an armadillo like creature. And just look at this gruesome sight right here. We have two lionesses attacking a water buffalo. Just look at these things. I would not want to mess with one of those. But you know that's the circle of life. So they have like active weather effects going on in this room right now. So it just started to rainstorm. This is really great. Really immersive stuff. This is so cool. Here we can see a little fennec fox. A little fox that lives in the desert. What a cute little guy he is. And over here we have a jaraboa which is sort of a jumping mouse. And down here we have a striped hyena. I think hyenas are really cool. Check that guy out. And right up here we can see a leopard with a very content expression because it's about to have this antelope for lunch. We can see the fearsome jaws of the hippopotamus. Now they say that these creatures kill more people than any other animal in Africa. And I think they don't actually bite them. They just kind of rush up on them and stomp people to death. It's pretty horrific stuff. And here we can see a giraffe bending down its neck to drink from water. Just look at how impressive that is to see a creature just so large and long-legged be able to do something like that. They have some zebra here. And over here we have a wildebeest. And here we have some more animals from the African Sahara. What is this guy? That is a gerenuk. This little guy here. And over here we have a blue wildebeest. And look at this little guy catching a bird. This is a serval. Oh and he just looks like a big kitty. He looks cute. I kind of want to pet him and keep him as a pet. And look at this cape porcupine. Look at the size of those quills. Oh my god. I would not want to be on the receiving end of one of those. Yikes. Here we have some polybus monkeys. And this creature which is known as a bongo. And over here we have an okapi which is a really cool and interesting animal. It's kind of like a cross between a camel and a giraffe. You can see it has the long tongue. And just look at the striped legs. Really neat. So here we are in the Australian section. And here we have these sugar gliders which are these cute little flying squirrel like animals. And this is a gray brushtail possum. Looks like a cute teddy bear if I'm being honest. And over here we have the the famous koala. And here we have the wild dingo. And we all know what their favorite food is. Of course babies. So here we are in the South America section. And we have this melanistic jaguar. Also known as a panther. Just look at that sleek stealthy killing machine. What an amazing creature. So here we have some monkeys. And this creature known as a which is a relative of the weasel. Pretty neat looking thing. And over here we have the three-toed sloth. Very popular animal. And this is a Brazilian porcupine. Here we have an agouti and a capybara. One of my favorite animals. These things are so cool. Back here we have an anteater with a cute little baby anteater on its back. And down here is a giant armadillo. Just look at the size of this thing. I didn't even know these existed. I always thought armadillos were just those like cute little things that you see on the side of the road down in places like Texas. Back here we have a tapir. Really interesting creature. So here we can see a creature known as the sun bear. And as you know these things are not actually real. They're just guys in costumes. I saw something about that on the internet. I'm pretty sure it's true. Back there is the clouded leopard which is an incredibly rare creature. And over here we have some seals. We have a jackal and a coati. What else is that? Is that some kind of skunk? It looks like a little skunk there. Over here we have a fallow deer. Very pretty creature. We have a ram. We have a rock hyrax. Look at that thing. Looks like a little groundhog type type of guy. And look at this wild boar. Oh my goodness. What a fearsome creature that is. I would not want to mess with one of those. Now what do we have back here? We have a lemur. And back here we have an orangutan. And here we can see some North American mammals. We have the black bear. Oh and look at the cute little baby black bear. And these are not uncommon to see where I live nowadays. I actually just saw one on the side of the road. We have some raccoons. We have foxes, rabbits, possum, deer, squirrels. All creatures I see just day to day. And in the area I live in sort of the rural side of New Jersey. But here we can see them on display at the museum. Here we have a bobcat, a kitsch, and a bird. They're just like uh just like regular cats except they're wild. It's exactly the type of thing you'd see a regular cat do. And right here we have a massive grizzly bear. These are really in my opinion one of the scariest animals. Like just look at how big he is. Look at these claws. Like you wouldn't stand a chance against one of these things. That's crazy. You know human beings we we think we're the top of the food chain but you got to look at something like this and think maybe we just have an inflated opinion of ourselves. Oh this is interesting. We have some of the skulls of some early humans. Here we have Australopithecus. They say that this is one of the earliest examples of human evolution. We're staring at the face of our ancestor right here. Isn't that something? And so this is Homo Heidelberg, Heidelberganus. I hope I said that right. And this is over 300,000 to 125,000 years old. Isn't that insane? That's crazy. So these are some of the oldest human skulls that have been found. Some of them are hundreds of thousands of years old. And it's just it's really mind-blowing to think we're standing here looking face to face with a person. Another human being who was alive so long ago. And just to just to think about that we can still form some kind of connection with someone like that, you know. It just it's it's really blows your mind. Hope I'm getting my point across here. I know I'm just kind of babbling but you know it's just it's it's really interesting stuff. Here we can see some examples of early human art. Just small carvings, small figurines that were recovered. Some of these are from Russia, Siberia. Just look at these things. It's just it's amazing to think that even so long ago people were still making art. Here we can see a recreation of some ancient cave art. This is amazing. Just look at how beautiful this is. Like this is not like rudimentary art by any means, you know. You can just see the level of creativity and thoughtfulness that went into it, you know. Even when we were in caves we were still making art. Human beings have always had a creative mind. It's just a really amazing and beautiful thing to think about. So this sculpture here is a depiction of a Neanderthal woman crafting clothing for her child, you know. Just another thing that separates us from the animals. The ability to craft, make clothing, things like that. Here we can see a sculpture of an early human creating fire. So here we can see some examples of the human evolutionary process. These faces, they are early humans. Here we have Australopithecus, the ape that eventually evolved into the human beings we are now. And this is Australopithecus africanus. You can see sort of the human features starting to emerge. And here we can see an example of Homo erectus. And it's just really wild to think about different human subspecies. To think that we weren't all just Homo sapien at one point. That there were different versions of a human being and that some made it, some didn't. Did we interbreed? Did we all become homogenized? They don't really know. But it's just really mind-blowing to think about. Here we can see a Neanderthal man. Just another example of a different human species. At one point we weren't all the same and that. It's just, it's really wild to think. Just my mind's getting blown left and right by the things that I'm trying to comprehend here. And here we can see the bones of a Neanderthal man. And I just, I just get chills when I see things like this. To look at the body of a person who was alive just so, so long ago. So far removed from everything we know in modern life. It's just, it's really amazing and incredible to try and understand these things and think about these things. And consider like, what was this person's life like, you know? How did they live? What were their thoughts, you know? Did they have a family? Did they feel the same emotions that we feel today? It's just, it's crazy. Okay, let's check out the ocean hall and see what they have in here. Right up above we have some kind of submersible unit. I guess this one made it back in one piece. So this here is a prehistoric sea Just check that out. That is a real life sea serpent right there. So in this case here, they have a giant squid. And we can just see just how long the tentacles are on this thing. It goes all the way down to the end of that case there. That is incredible. I wonder how it tastes if it's deep fried with some marinara on it. Probably pretty good. So hanging up above us is a massive North American right whale. And you know, you always think of whales as big, but having one right up above you like this, you can really get a good sense of just how massive something like this really is. Just look at how big that crab is. That is a big spider crab right there. And what do we have down here? Oh, we have an anglerfish. I always see pictures of these, but I've never actually seen one in person. That is so cool. What a creepy little thing that is. And what is this thing? An isopod. That is crazy. Look at how big that thing is. And right up above us, we have the skull of a baleen whale. It's just hard to comprehend just how large that really is. You know, it's massive. Just look at that thing. That must be another mosasaur. Oh, these things are amazing. Just look at that. Here we can see the skull of a prehistoric ocean creature known as a placoderm. And just look at that. Look at how much of that is just like bone plate. His entire head and those jaws. He could like crunch a boat in half if he wanted to. Here we can see another giant squid. And I think it's really cool that it's an actual preserved specimen and not just like a mounted version of it. You can really just see the actual flesh of the creature. It's so cool. And here we can see the jaws of a megalodon shark. I would not want to be between those. Look at these teeth. Yikes. Oh my goodness, look at this shark. Wow. So this must be a megalodon shark right here. Wow. Oh, that's amazing. I'm going to have a little snack right here before I become a snack of this giant shark. All right, you guys, time to see some dinosaurs. Let's head into the fossil hall. Here we can see an American mastodon, early ancestor of the elephant, and a really great metal band. This is a chalicothyr. I think I'm saying that correctly. And this is like an early elephant-like creature. Right down here kind of gives you an idea of what it may have looked like. Really cool. I love stuff like this. What is this? This is a gomophothyr elephant skull cast. Kind of looks like a cyclops. So here we can see some early mammals. We have a prehistoric dog. This is an early camel-like creature. And right here, this is an early horse. Back there, that creature with the tusks, that's a brontotherium, which is similar to a rhinoceros. Really neat to see one of these. Here we can see some more early mammals, sort of precursors to the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros. Just look at the forward-facing tusks on these. Sort of like hook-shaped. That's incredible. This is a giant flightless bird. Look at that. Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Giant, murderous, killer ostrich bird. So this is a large hippo-like mammal that swam in the oceans. Looks kind of like a manatee or a sea cow or something like that. And there is something interesting back there. I'm not sure what that is. And we have more whale skulls and early walruses. Look at the length of these tusks here. That's crazy. So here we have another early mammal. I'm not even going to try and pronounce that one, but just look at that. That's what it may have looked like right there. And the name of it is, um, yeah, I'm not even going to try. Here we have a massive turtle and we have another mosasaur. Just, could you imagine if you were swimming in the ocean and one of these swam up next to you? What would you do? How would you handle that? Just look at this fish fossil. Massive fish fossil. That is so incredible, so beautiful. And I just noticed the smaller fish in its stomach. So the big fish swallows the little fish, I guess, even back then. Oh, and here we have some good old dinosaurs. We have this one. It's not a triceratops. It's one of the ones that was similar to a triceratops. Ceratopsian, I think. I'm probably butchering that. And back there we have a hadrosaurus. And here we have the ankylosaurus. Oh my gosh. Look at its tail. Look at its clubbed tail. Here we can see some examples of dinosaurs having fossilized feathers. So they say dinosaurs evolved into birds. And here we can see the evidence for it. That's so amazing. And here we can see this fossil of an Archaeopteryx. And I have seen pictures of this fossil ever since I was a kid. And here I am looking at the actual fossil itself. Oh, I have chills right now. This is really amazing to be here looking at this one. Here we can see a stegosaurus engaged in deadly combat against the theropod dinosaur. Now, who do you think would win between these two? I don't know. I would think this guy, but he's on his back. It looks like the stegosaurus is about to take him. Let's look at the spikes on the tail of the stegosaurus. I would not want to mess with one of those. Let's get a close-up on the skull on this one. Oh, I've loved dinosaurs so much. That was something I've loved ever since I was a kid, and I just, I never grew out of it. So it's a real joy to be here today. And here we have a diplodocus skeleton. I really like the long-necked dinosaurs, like the brachiosaurus, the apatosaurus. Those were always cool. I always liked them when I was a kid. Just look at these vertebrae. Could you imagine if you were just walking along and you saw one of these, you know, eating leaves from a tall tree standing right next to you? And here we have an incredible display of a tyrannosaurus and a triceratops. It's just incredible. So this is a glyptodon, and you notice the hard shell on it. It's almost like a prehistoric giant armadillo. And right in the back, we have a giant ground sloth. Those guys are cool. Take a look at that. And here we have a woolly mammoth. Just look at the tusks on this creature. You know, I remember they found one of these and they were talking about cloning it and bringing it back, and I say, you know, what's stopping you, you know? Bring back mammoths. Bring back dinosaurs. Bring back it all. I mean, it's probably a bad idea, but are we really doing things that are good ideas nowadays? We might as well just bring back dinosaurs and stuff. I'm all for it. So here we have a prehistoric giant deer. And just look at the massive antlers on that. And over here we have a bear and a wolverine. So this is really interesting. This is actually the mummified remains of a bison. So we can actually still see the preserved skin and flesh of this animal. And it lived 28,000 years ago. And here we are looking at its body. Really blows your mind. This is a giant moa, which was a giant flightless bird. Another just really cool animal. And so this is a phytosaur, which is sort of an early crocodile-like creature. So this is a stegosaurus. And, you know, we see these specimens all mounted and reassembled, and they don't find them like that. They find them kind of like this, just kind of in a jumble. And they have to put a lot of work and a lot of effort goes into reassembling these things and identifying which bones are which. So you really got to hand it to the people who put in all the hard work to make that happen and teach us about these things. Here in the stairwell, we have these incredibly large totem poles. Here we can see a monkey taking a selfie. Why? I don't know. Here we have a section called Objects of Wonder. What will we find here, I wonder? So this beautiful piece of stone here is an amethyst crystal with calcite formations in it. Doesn't that look like castles in your dreams? So these are some of the earliest artifacts collected for the Smithsonian. These were collected in the 1800s. This is a red fox, and here we have a herring gull, and we have an Inuit headdress. So this is a Japanese suit of samurai armor that was actually gifted to President Theodore Roosevelt. How cool is that? Let's see if we can get a good look at the face on this. Oh, there's probably too much glare. There we go. Look at that. This is an incredibly large piece of lapis lazuli. How beautiful is that? So here we have a taxidermy lion from the year 1909. So that's a very old example of taxidermy. And over here we have these birds. Look at these guys. So these are shoebills, and they're from Sudan. So here we have a depiction of the chief of Fiji wearing a traditional garment. Very interesting, if I do say so. So what we're looking at here is the painted front of a house from an indigenous Alaskan tribe. This is amazing. Just look at this art style. Here we have the femur of an apatosaurus. So it's not a brontosaurus. It's an apatosaurus. It turns out brontosaurus wasn't actually real, that they kind of made a scientific mistake, and it's actually just apatosaurus. So here we can see woolly mammoth flesh and woolly mammoth hair. What we're looking at right now is meat from the mammoth, and this is its hair. That is incredible that it's so well preserved. So here we have a section on different rocks and minerals. Let's go check this out. So this is a piece of a meteorite known as the old woman, one of the largest meteorites found. It's crazy to think that this came from outer space, you know? But when you think about it, isn't everything from outer space? These are more meteorites. Wow, it's just crazy to be next to something like this, just a giant rock that fell from outer space, you know? Just look at these things. I guess you can touch them? I'm just kidding. So this is a piece of basalt that was from a volcanic eruption, and it formed this sort of droplet shape as it flew through the air. It's pretty wild. Wouldn't want that to land on me. So this is actually naturally formed geometric rock columns created by volcanic activity. You know, you'd look at something like this and think, like, how could something like this happen in nature? But it did, and you know, it's just wild, you know? Nature is just so magical and greater than what we can comprehend, you know? It really is. So one of the most famous artifacts they have here at the Smithsonian is the Hope Diamond, which is an incredibly large blue colored diamond, which some say is cursed, that many of its owners died under mysterious circumstances. And they have it right here on display. Let's go check this out. So the Hope Diamond, it's 45.52 carats, one of the most famous gems, flawless clarity, rare deep blue color. And here we see it, the famous Hope Diamond. Just look at how big, just how deep the blue color is on that. So thank you for joining me on this trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. When you think of what a museum is, this is the place you think of. This has it all. It has dinosaurs, natural history, minerals, all kinds of great stuff to see. I really felt like a kid again going to see all those dinosaur skeletons. I had so much fun, and I hope you had fun joining me, and I'll catch you in the next one. Thank you for watching.