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Three hundred year old pen and ink drawing of a "strange and large" bat.

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New Guinea Bat

July 2010

Photograph of several large jellyfish with orange bells, dark red tentacles, and pale ruffly oral arms, swimming against a bright blue aquarium background.

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Pacific Sea Nettles

September 2017

When we use fossil fuels to power our cars, homes, and businesses, we put heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

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Tracking Ocean Acidification

July 2010

The arrows show the direction of ocean currents recorded by William Dampier while crossing “La Grande Mer du Sud”—the Pacific Ocean.

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Pacific Ocean Currents

July 2010

Illustrations of fish and crab from New Guinea

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New Guinea Fish and Crab

July 2010

After leaving Australia, Dampier and his men reached the western coast of New Guinea on New Year’s Day 1700. There Dampier observed birds that he had never seen before, like the “stately land-fowl” shown here.

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New Guinea Birds

July 2010

Pirate William Dampier's shipboard artist carefully recorded the species that Dampier found new and unusual.

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Australian Fish and Cuttlefish

July 2010

As Dampier studied the plants he encountered in Australia, he wrote that they were “for the most part unlike any I had seen elsewhere.” In fact, nearly all the plants Dampier observed were entirely unknown to botanists at that time.

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More Australian Plants

July 2010

As soon as Dampier set foot in Australia, he began making observations and collecting specimens of plants, which he carefully pressed between the pages of books to be studied by the “ingenious” and “curious” upon his return to England. As Dampier conducted his investigations, his artist made detailed sketches like these.

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Australian Plants

July 2010

Giant tortoise habitat on Galapagos Islands.

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Cerro Azul, Isabela Island, Galapagos Islands

July 2010

Pirate captain Bartholomew Roberts dressed in embroidered coats and hats with feathered plumes, like an elegant gentleman.

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Portrait of Bartholomew Roberts

July 2010

Pirates Ann Bonny and Mary Read shown in men's clothes

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Ann Bonny and Mary Read

July 2010