Florida Museum of Natural History Florida Museum of Natural History News

UngulateNerd92

UngulateNerd92

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Premium Member
Saying goodbye to the Northwest Florida: Waterways and Wildlife exhibit

On Feb. 26, 2023, the Florida Museum of Natural History will officially say goodbye to Powell Hall’s oldest permanent exhibit,

Northwest Florida: Waterways and Wildlife. This goodbye comes with many memories and much excitement for a new exhibit, Water Shapes Florida, opening in Spring 2024, that will feature a field-cabin replica, a glass-bottom boat experience and a “Water Lab.” However, before we lose ourselves in the excitement of the future, let us make a tribute to the beauty of the past.

Fascinating young and old minds for over 20 years, the Northwest Florida exhibit invited museum visitors to experience the unique beauty of Florida’s panhandle. This exhibit featured hammock forests, tidal marshes, seepage bogs and many more of northwest Florida’s extraordinary ecosystems.

Saying goodbye to the Northwest Florida: Waterways and Wildlife exhibit
 
Unique Museum Facility Given Rare Platinum Sustainability Certification

The high-hazard “wet” storage project was highly scrutinized as it would house more than 40 million specimens and cultural artifacts.

The Special Collections Building (UF-373) for the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville has received Platinum Certification from the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC), the coalition announced.

The recently completed, highly unique project was Haskell’s first design-build project for the University of Florida. For UF, it was a rare use of design-build delivery and the first to employ tilt-wall construction.

Unique Museum Facility Given Rare Platinum Sustainability Certification
 
Forgotten for decades, rediscovered watercolor collection features hundreds of Florida plants

Botanist Mark Whitten was rummaging in an old drawer in the University of Florida Herbarium for tracing paper when he discovered something unexpected: hundreds of World War II-era watercolor paintings, each of a unique Florida plant.

Likely untouched in the 20 years since the herbarium’s move into Dickinson Hall, the collection was largely forgotten, but the same cool, dark conditions intended to preserve the herbarium’s more than 400,000 specimens also preserved the paintings.

Artist Minna Fernald donated over 320 paintings of Florida wildflowers to the university in 1942, providing a rich record of the state’s past ecological life.

“If you go out looking for these plants nowadays, you can find them but they’re only in little isolated preserves,” said Whitten, a biological scientist at the herbarium. “My impression is what Minna Fernald saw was a much more wild and interesting Florida than what it is now.”

In fact, Whitten has no doubt that Fernald spent a great deal of her time in the field.

Forgotten for decades, rediscovered watercolor collection features hundreds of Florida plants
 
I know that this article is from 2016, but I just stumbled upon now, I found it interesting and wanted to share here.

Cicadas are the Barry White of the insect world

Summer days resonate with the sound of cicadas trying to make a love connection. But like a lot of singles, male cicadas don’t always attract the kind of mates they’re hoping for.

Cicada calls, it turns out, attract not just female cicadas, but sarcophagid flies in the mood for love, according to a study by Brian J. Stucky, a postdoctoral researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

Here’s where it gets weird. The love song also attracts pregnant sarcophagid flies looking to deposit maggots that burrow into the cicada and feed on its insides until they eat their way out. The cicada, as you might expect, does not survive.

Previous studies have found that female parasitic flies sometimes use sound to find their hosts, but Stucky was surprised to find that both female and male flies were attracted to cicada calls. He investigated the role sound played by broadcasting cicada calls, then observing flies arriving and hanging out. Some of the female arrivals were pregnant, but many were not, so finding a host for their larvae was not the only goal. Indeed, males and females both demonstrated they had procreation in mind. Males repeatedly attempted to mate with other arriving flies, including other males, and some managed to do so with females.

Cicadas are the Barry White of the insect world
 
A journey of metamorphosis: Introducing butterflies into the Butterfly Rainforest

Have you ever been through the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly Rainforest exhibit, mesmerized by the hundreds of beautiful creatures whizzing by and wondered, how do they get all these butterflies and moths in here?

The Florida Museum partners with sustainable butterfly farms around the world that regularly ship lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) to us. After painstaking work from our expert staff members to receive proper permits and ensure good relations with partnering farms, the museum places an order and waits patiently for the pupa to arrive.


A journey of metamorphosis: Introducing butterflies into the Butterfly Rainforest
 
Florida Museum of Natural History awarded re-accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums

The Florida Museum of Natural History has again achieved accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded to the nation’s museums. Accreditation signifies excellence to the museum community, governments, funders, outside agencies and the museum-going public.

The American Alliance of Museums outlines best practices, shares knowledge and provides advocacy on issues of concern to the entire museum community. Accreditation from the alliance has been developed and sustained by museum professionals since 1971 and serves as the field’s primary vehicle for quality assurance, self-regulation and public accountability.

Florida Museum awarded re-accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums
 
David Blackburn named University of Florida Research Foundation Professor

The University of Florida Research Foundation has named Florida Museum curator of herpetology David Blackburn as one of its 2023 UFRF Professors. Blackburn is among 33 additional UF faculty members who were awarded for excelling in their field of research.

“This recognition goes to faculty who have a distinguished current record of research and a strong research agenda that is likely to lead to continuing distinction in their fields,” said David Norton, UF’s vice president for research. “Based on the more than 700 UF faculty recognized over the past 26 years, we can expect significant research discoveries, scholarship and technology transfer from this group in the future.”

David Blackburn named UF Research Foundation Professor
 
Top killers of Florida birds: Trauma on land, starvation at sea

An analysis of birds that died at Florida wildlife rehabilitation clinics found songbirds and other land-dwelling species were most often killed by traumatic injuries, commonly caused by cats or collisions with buildings, windows or vehicles. For seabirds, malnourishment was a leading cause of death, possibly due to fluctuations in fish numbers as water temperature warms.

Florida Museum of Natural History ornithologists examined 1,928 birds, representing 285 species, that succumbed to injuries or illness at rehabilitation clinics from 2015-2019. Trauma was responsible for killing 93% of terrestrial birds in the sample and 78% of near-shore waterbirds, such as ducks. Malnourishment killed 77% of the sample’s offshore birds, such as petrels and shearwaters, which were often found beached and too weak to fly.

Top killers of Florida birds: Trauma on land, starvation at sea
 
Rodent extinctions in Hispaniola may have been caused by humans

The island of Hispaniola once had among the highest rodent diversity in the Caribbean, supporting 11 species that coexisted for thousands of years. Today, only one rodent species remains within the island’s two countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and its prospects for survival are uncertain. There are many theories as to why so many species went extinct, but it’s unclear exactly when each disappeared, making it difficult to determine the cause.

A new study helps bring the history of this group into clearer focus. Researchers from the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in the Dominican Republic performed carbon-dating analyses on the fossilized remains of six hutia species, close relatives of capybaras that resemble a mix between a squirrel and beaver. They also examined thousands of bones stored at the Florida Museum of Natural History that were initially collected over 40 years ago, analyzing them for any similarities that might help explain the recent wave of rodent extinctions.

“These hidden gems are what made this study possible,” said Lazaro Viñola Lopez, a doctoral student at the University of Florida and lead author on the study.

Rodent extinctions in Hispaniola may have been caused by humans
 
Butterfly tree of life reveals an origin in North America

About 100 million years ago, a group of trendsetting moths started flying during the day rather than at night, taking advantage of nectar-rich flowers that had co-evolved with bees. This single event led to the evolution of all butterflies.

Scientists have known the precise timing of this event since 2019, when a large-scale analysis of DNA discounted the reigning hypothesis that pressure from bats prompted the evolution of butterflies after the extinction of dinosaurs.

Now, scientists have discovered where the first butterflies originated and which plants they relied on for food.

Before reaching these conclusions, researchers from dozens of countries had to create the world’s largest butterfly tree of life, assembled with DNA from more than 2,000 species representing all butterfly families and 92% of genera. Using this framework as a guide, they traced the movements and feeding habits of butterflies through time in a four-dimensional puzzle that led back to North and Central America. According to their results, published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, this is where the first butterflies took flight.

For lead author Akito Kawahara, curator of lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural History, the project was a long time coming.

“This was a childhood dream of mine,” he said. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since visiting the American Museum of Natural History when I was a kid and seeing a picture of a butterfly phylogeny taped to a curator’s door. It’s also the most difficult study I’ve ever been a part of, and it took a massive effort from people all over the world to complete.”

Butterfly tree of life reveals an origin in North America
 
Skulls gone wild: How and why some frogs evolved extreme heads

Many frogs look like a water balloon with legs, but don’t be fooled. Beneath slick skin, some species sport spines, spikes and other skeletal secrets.

While most frogs share a simple skull shape with a smooth surface, others have evolved fancier features, such as faux fangs, elaborate crests, helmet-like fortification and venom-delivering spikes. A new study is the first to take a close look at the evolution and function of these armored frog skulls.

Florida Museum of Natural History researchers used 3D data to study skull shape in 158 species representing all living frog families. Radically shaped skulls were often covered in intricate patterns of grooves, ridges and pits formed by extra layers of bone. The research team found that this trait, known as hyperossification, has evolved more than 25 times in frogs. Species with the same feeding habits or defenses tended to develop similarly shaped and patterned skulls, even if they were separated by millions of years of evolution.

“Superficially, frogs may look similar, but when you look at their skulls, you see drastic differences,” said Daniel Paluh, the study’s lead author and a University of Florida doctoral student. “Some of the weirdest skulls are found in frogs that eat birds and mammals, use their heads as a shield, or in a few rare cases, are venomous. Their skulls show how strange and diverse frogs can be.”

Skulls gone wild: How and why some frogs evolved extreme heads
 
Move over, armadillos. There’s a new bone-plated mammal in town

Mammals are a bit odd when it comes to bones. Rather than the bony plates and scales of crocodiles, turtles, lizards, dinosaurs and fish, mammals long ago traded in their ancestral suit of armor for a layer of insulating hair.

Armadillos, with their protective and flexible shell of imbricated bone, are considered the only living exception. But a new study, published today in the journal iScience, unexpectedly shows that African spiny mice produce the same structures beneath the skin of their tails, which until now had gone largely undetected.

The discovery was made during routine CT scanning of museum specimens for the open Vertebrate program, an initiative to provide 3D models of vertebrate organisms for researchers, educators and artists.

“I was scanning a mouse specimen from the Yale Peabody Museum, and the tails looked abnormally dark,” said co-author Edward Stanley, director of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s digital imaging laboratory.

Move over, armadillos. There's a new bone-plated mammal in town
 
Researchers use Artificial Intelligence to create a treasure map of undiscovered ant species

E.O. Wilson once referred to invertebrates as “the little things that run the world,” without whom “the human species [wouldn’t] last more than a few months.” Although small, invertebrates have an outsized influence on their environments, pollinating plants, breaking down organic matter and speeding up nutrient cycling. And what they lack in stature, they make up for in diversity. With more than one million known species, insects alone vastly outnumber all other invertebrates and vertebrates combined.

Despite their importance and ubiquity, some of the most basic information about invertebrates, such as where they’re most diverse and how many of them there are, still remains a mystery. This is especially problematic for conservation scientists trying to stave off global insect declines; you can’t conserve something if you don’t know where to look for it.

In a new study published this Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers used ants as a proxy to help close major knowledge gaps and hopefully begin reversing these declines. Working for more than a decade, researchers from institutions around the world stitched together nearly one-and-a-half million location records from research publications, online databases, museums and scientific field work. They used those records to help produce the largest global map of insect diversity ever created, which can be used to direct future conservation efforts.

“This is a massive undertaking for a group known to be a critical ecosystem engineer,” said co-author Robert Guralnick, curator of biodiversity informatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “It represents an enormous effort not only among all the co-authors but the many naturalists who have contributed knowledge about distributions of ants across the globe.”

Researchers use AI to create a treasure map of undiscovered ant species
 
Unearthing the Past: Scientists discover fossils of mammoths, sabretooth cats, rhinos that once roamed Florida

UF paleontology team continues to discover 5.6 million year old remains on North Central Florida property.

Fossil hunters in Florida are unearthing incredible finds, including prehistoric creatures such as rhinos, mammoths and sabretooth cats.

Florida is one of the richest states when it comes to paleontology, and new discoveries are being made every day.

University of Florida researchers recently discovered the incredibly intact remains of a giant gomphothere, a 10,000-pound, four-tusk relative of an elephant that roamed the area before humans.

The discovery was made on a piece of private property about 45 minutes southwest of Gainesville, on a site known as Montbrook.

For seven years now, paleontologists, UF students, and hundreds of volunteers have been hand-digging the site.

Unearthing the Past: Scientists discover fossils of mammoths, sabretooth cats, rhinos that once roamed Florida
 
Extinct elephant fossils discovered in Levy County

Paleontologists in North Central Florida discovered extinct elephant fossils in at a dig site in Levy County.

A team of paleontologists from the Florida Museum of Natural History, volunteers, and University of Florida students discovered fossils at the Montbrook fossil site after working for a year.

Jonathan Bloch is the Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the museum. He said the area was once a river, and while he’s discovered many small fossils, he’s excited for something bigger.

“We’ve been coming across skeletons of an extinct elephant called a gomphothere,” said Bloch. “It’s different than modern elephants in that it has four tusks, two upper tusks, two lower tusks.”

Marsupials might be the more evolved mammals
 
UngulateNerd92 said:
Extinct elephant fossils discovered in Levy County

Paleontologists in North Central Florida discovered extinct elephant fossils in at a dig site in Levy County.

A team of paleontologists from the Florida Museum of Natural History, volunteers, and University of Florida students discovered fossils at the Montbrook fossil site after working for a year.

Jonathan Bloch is the Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the museum. He said the area was once a river, and while he’s discovered many small fossils, he’s excited for something bigger.

“We’ve been coming across skeletons of an extinct elephant called a gomphothere,” said Bloch. “It’s different than modern elephants in that it has four tusks, two upper tusks, two lower tusks.”

Marsupials might be the more evolved mammals
Click to expand...

Here is another relevant article.

Paleontologists discover elephant graveyard in North Florida

Researchers and volunteers at the Florida Museum of Natural History have unearthed what may be the largest gomphothere ever discovered in Florida.

About five and a half million years ago, several gomphotheres — extinct relatives of elephants — died in or near a river in North Florida. Although their deaths likely occurred hundreds of years apart, their bodies were all deposited in a single location, entombed alongside other animals that had met with a similar fate.

Today, the river no longer exists, but the fossils it left behind have offered paleontologists a panoramic view of life in prehistoric Florida. Early last year, scientists and volunteers began unearthing the gomphotheres at the Montbrook Fossil Dig in what is likely to be a record-breaking discovery.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime find,” said Jonathan Bloch, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “It’s the most complete gomphothere skeleton from this time period in Florida and among the best in North America.”

Paleontologists discover elephant graveyard in North Florida
 
Megan Ennes named director of the University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute

Megan Ennes, assistant curator of museum education at the Florida Museum of Natural History, has been named the new director of the University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute. In her role, which begins July 1, Ennes will strengthen and forge new collaborations with researchers at UF and across the state to further the Institute’s mission.

TESI launched in 2018 thanks to a gift from longtime Museum supporters Jon and Beverly Thompson. Since then, the Institute has become known for its Scientist in Every Florida School program (SEFS), public events, digital outreach and environmental leadership opportunities for UF undergraduates. Through these programs, TESI strives to advance communication and education about Earth systems science in a way that inspires Floridians to be effective stewards of our planet.

In her role at the Museum, Ennes studies how people learn about science in informal settings, like museums. Ennes has also served as the science director for the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation, an organization that trains informal educators on how to communicate about climate change using research-backed methods. One of her overarching goals for the work she does is to come up with strategies for how museums can broaden participation in science, something that aligns with the goals of TESI.

“I’m very excited at how well I think this additional role aligns with my goals and research,” said Ennes, who also heads up the Museum Education Research Group.

Megan Ennes named director of the University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute
 
Florida Frog Calls

Standing outside at night anywhere in rural Florida means you’re likely hearing frogs calling. Some species are comfortable in urban areas as well.

If you learn to pick out the species of frogs (and toads), you can quickly know a lot about the habitat, the season and even the individual’s personal message. They call out for breeding purposes, to mark territory, to alert each other about predators and in response to the weather.

Here are many (not all) of Florida’s frogs by voice, plus a bonus of seasonal choruses. (Audio from “Florida Frog Calls” by Florida Museum of Natural History.)

Florida Frog Calls
 
It's my favorite time of year, it's deafening out side my house.....in a good way
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top