Other species within the catalog tell other stories, like the golden eagle, which documents the only verified instance of the bird on Nantucket. According to Andrews, it was seen alive November 14, 1962, only to be found dead the following day under a utility pole near Sesachacha Pond. Or there’s the white ibis, which was found in a patch of snow in the Mothball Pines in 1965. To this day, its appearance here is an unsolved mystery—none have been seen on the island since. Of course, the collection tells stories beyond birds. The spotfin butterflyfish, traditionally a tropical fish, is one example. Andrews says that some tropical species are carried north as larvae, and then lack the strength to return south for the winter as adults. Patterns like this document ocean currents, as well as a way to track climate change.

When it comes to collecting the specimens, Andrews and the team generally rely on the public and get calls from islanders and summer residents when they find anything interesting. But for the moment, this has been put on pause—at least for new ornithology finds—due to concerns over the bird flu. It doesn’t mean that research has stopped, though. The specific ornithology collection displayed on one large, long table during my visit was just used by college students at UMass, who studied the species to see the adaptations of birds’ bills and feet, as well as different plumages.

“As you look at the change between the foot of a fish eater or a rabbit eater, you can see how plastic life really is—not plastic in the sense of the clothing we wear, but the ability to shift, change and grow,” Andrews explains. “And that is what gives me hope.”

The catalog, in general, is used constantly for different programming and reasons, whether for college students, research, children’s education or even art classes. But in all, the feathers, fur and exoskeletons that are kept below the research center truly show how constantly life moves and adapts—and yet, with 10,000-plus species, there’s still so much to learn. Andrews adds, “[Nantucket] is basically roughly the size of Manhattan, if you count the sandy parts, and there’s still so much we don’t know about it.” She references a saying from biologist E.O. Wilson, who thought that humans could continue to survive, but only if we preserved half of the biodiversity in the world. “If we could preserve half of Nantucket, is that going to be enough? That’s the big question,” she counters. “I don’t think half is quite enough. We have so much more to learn about the world, even just the world of Nantucket.”