Steller sea lion / CAS:MAM:23213

The Academy's O&M department is home to 96,000 bird specimens, 11,000 egg and nest specimens, and 28,500 mammal specimens (comprising one of the largest marine mammal collections in the world). Through field research, morphological examinations, and genomic analysis, O&M staff are compiling a wealth of data on the evolution of these organisms, their distribution around the world, and how they're responding to changes in the environment. As human populations and impacts continue to grow, this information will provide not only a record of how things used to be, but the knowledge we need to protect what's left.