Gallery: The Fascinating Treasures Locked Away at California's Best Science Museum
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED01-MG-9152
New Zealand’s ever so charming, yet [critically endangered kakapo](http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/kakapo/). Just over 100 survive in the wild. It’s in fact a kind of parrot, the world's heaviest, having long ago given up flight. There was never really a need to fly, because before humans arrived, the only predatory land mammals in New Zealand were bats. That changed, though, when Maori settlers brought along egg-loving rats in the 13th century, which have devastated kakapo populations.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED02-MG-9175
The Guadalupe Island storm-petrel is extinct, having fallen victim to invasive species introduced by humans. It hasn’t been seen [since 1912](http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/overview?p_p_spp=105436). Interestingly, after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed almost the entirety of the California Academy of Sciences’ collections, these two were rescued and were the first specimens entered into the new ornithology catalog.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED03elephant-bird-egg
It’s hard to describe the terror of being in the presence of an elephant bird egg. Not that a giant bird would smash out of it and assault you—the 10-foot-tall birds were driven to extinction just centuries ago by humans—but the sheer rarity of it is horrifying. There are only a handful of these eggs left in the world, with one going at auction last year [for over $100,000 dollars](http://news.yahoo.com/huge-elephant-bird-egg-gets-101-813-uk-143550327.html). I almost had an aneurism just watching someone handle this one.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED04orca-skeleton
In 2011, the Academy's Moe Flannery hurried just north of San Francisco to observe a dead orca that’d washed ashore. [This is its skeleton](http://www.calacademy.org/a-specimens-path). It was probably brutalized by another orca, its broken ribs piercing its lungs. Strangely, its teeth had been worn down to nubs, likely due to a diet of sharks with super-rough skin. At the other end of it are tiny vestigial limbs, a reminder that whales and dolphins evolved from land mammals.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED05-MG-9211
The skull of the Caribbean monk seal. Discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1494, the seal was last seen in 1952 on small coral islands between Jamaica and Honduras. The archipelagos that it frequented had no large carnivores, so when humans arrived it didn’t feel in the least bit threatened—a sad and frequent happenstance in island habitats. The seal is now [officially extinct](http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/13655/0), though unconfirmed sightings have trickled in over the years.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED06-MG-9238
San Francisco may have its own flock of parrots (how they got here is a matter of [some debate](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/05/san-francisco-telegraph-hill-parrots.html)), but throughout the eastern US there used to soar the beautiful Carolina parakeet, and it actually belonged here. They flittered about in massive flocks—until they [went extinct in the 1920s](http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/conservation/extinctions/carolina_parakeet). Deforestation had taken its toll, combined with hunting by overzealous farmers defending their fruit crops.
Josh Valcarcel/WIRED07-MG-9269
Ah, the incredible lyrebird, [my favorite avian of all](http://stag4.wired.com/2014/02/absurd-creature-week-lyrebird/). You won’t hear it from this specimen, but the lyrebird sings the most astounding song on Earth. It can perfectly imitate—*perfectly*—a wide array of both natural and man-made sounds, from other birds and car alarms to cameras and chainsaws. Watch and listen for yourself [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y#t=107). It’s real. I promise.
