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There’s a little-known secret at the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville.

Beyond its collection of ancient skeletons and fossils, including a 140-million-year-old dinosaur from Wyoming, lies a small band of dedicated researchers and scientists working behind the scenes. Here, among a genetics lab, a tissue collection stored at minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit and a pink copperhead named Cabbage Patch, is where research and collections technician Marshall Boyd does his work.

“Only about 1% to 5% of the total amount of things that are in the museum are ever on exhibit,” Boyd says. The rest is kept behind closed doors for study and is only occasionally brought out for educational displays.

Keeping Boyd company in his office are Sriracha and Cholula, a pair of baby corn snakes named for popular hot sauces evocative of their red scales and an occasional fiery urge to escape. They represent just a fraction of the living and preserved specimens Boyd helps manage as part of a small team. One day, after careful training by Boyd, the snakes will clock in for their own duties at the museum — as animal ambassadors, interacting with visitors who may have never encountered the species before.

With 35 total staff members and only four other research technicians at the museum, Boyd says the team works closely to keep things moving.

Boyd catalogs and curates the museum’s collection, a task he compares to a game of Tetris mixed with tic-tac-toe and checkers. Shelves fill quickly, so moving one specimen often means rearranging several others.

“If I put this bear here, I can fit a zebra underneath,” he says.

Alongside the preserved skins and skeletal material are donated taxidermy mounts, other specimens collected for research and a growing range of fossils.

The other half of Boyd’s role brings him face to face with museum guests, from school groups to visiting researchers. Boyd enjoys introducing curious visitors to the museum’s animal ambassadors and works to change attitudes toward creatures that are often misunderstood. Watching a nervous visitor reach out to touch a snake for the first time is one of his favorite parts of the job.

“Just because it’s so much different than you doesn’t mean it’s bad,” he counsels.

The Eastern Hellbender, the largest salamander in North America, is Boyd’s favorite species. He animatedly shares with guests how they can grow up to two feet long and as wide as a man’s hand. Younger guests especially delight when Boyd, with his signature sense of humor, lets them in on the lizard’s nicknames of “snot otters” and “lasagna lizards.”

With a master’s degree in biology and a lifelong love for “Jurassic Park” Boyd feels right at home at the museum. Studying at Salisbury University, Boyd wrote about forest birds found across the lower Eastern shore of Maryland, analyzing the effects of deforestation on their populations and habitat. As an undergraduate, he visited Honduras with a focus on zoology and ecology in cloud forests and Caribbean coral reef habitats.

“People like Steve Irwin, Jane Goodall were like my idols growing up, ” Boyd says. “They still are.”

Before joining the museum in Martinsville, Boyd worked at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, focusing on marine invertebrates like crabs and shrimp. After a budget cut ended that role, he began searching for new opportunities and eventually landed in Virginia, where he now works with vertebrates — a shift that has broadened his experience and allowed him to explore new areas of zoology.

Settling into his own apartment in Martinsville has given Boyd more stability than he had in Washington, where shared space and tight finances made saving for his future difficult.

Now, he’s thinking more seriously about long-term goals, like retirement and buying a home. Boyd says he’s still learning the ins and outs of his VRS plan but recommends starting with resources like the VRS Member Guide to understand the basics. He also points out that even small contributions can add up over time, especially with employer matching available through the Hybrid Retirement Plan.

“You have to take the time to invest in yourself,” he says. “If you don’t, who will?”

For now, that investment shows up in small ways like the plants that fill his apartment windows. It’s a quiet reminder of the life he’s building in a career he loves, one step at a time.