The evolutionary path that brought us to butterflies is intriguing. Moths originated 300 million years ago and diversified with a little help from a fungus and bacterium. Then... Scientists lay out what we do & don’t yet know about moths and butterflies: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

Exhibit #SciArt 🐎 Florida Miocene This painting in our Florida Fossils exhibit illustrates when savannahs and woodlands spread across Florida, creating habitats for a diversity of herbivores and their specialized predators. 🗝️ Check out the art + key: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blo...

Museum Resource 🐸🎶 Florida Frog Calls Our online guide has audio of many species you will typically hear in our state, as well as seasonal chorus tracks of multiple species, and a modern addition – the Cuban treefrog. Listen: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-her... 🐸 #FrogFriday

Museum Resource 🏺 Pottery Types Gallery Our Ceramic Technology Lab has created a searchable pottery type collection, currently focusing on Pre-Columbian types found in Florida. Browse, filter and search: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/ceramiclab/p...

Museum Collections 📙 Projectile Points In the 1960s, Dr. Ripley Bullen began a Florida projectile point typology as a starting point to understanding stone tool types. The Bullen Projectile Point Type Collection is still frequently used by researchers: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/flarch/colle...

Museum Collections 🔬 While taxonomy is not everyone's cup of tea, many researchers use the large collections here at our McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity as a resource for their numerous taxonomic works: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news... 🦋🦋🦋🦋

Museum Resource 🐍 Florida Snake ID Guide Easy visual ID and searchable tool for learning about our state's snakes including habitat, range, diet & lookalikes. Featured: Black Swampsnake (Liodytes pygaea) Snake profile: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-snak... NON-VENOMOUS Photo: Luke Smith

Shark class moves learning from the classroom into the field, where @ufl.edu & FSU students don’t just study sharks but handle them: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/shar... 🦈 Gavin Naylor: “If you’re deeply curious and reasonably adventurous, I think you might really enjoy this course.”

In some environments, caterpillars consume more living leaves than all other animals in that environment put together. 🐛 Scientists lay out what we do and don’t yet know about moths and butterflies in a broad review of our lepidoptera knowledge: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

Rice fueled many of the earliest civilizations and remains an indispensable source of food in the modern world. That might be about to change. Scientists warn that after 9,000 years of cultivation, rice has reached its thermal limit: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afte... Image: Hermann Köhler

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records, photos and map. Shown: Everglades Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma evergladei), indigenous to Florida's freshwaters 🔗 Info & browse: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

Shark class allows University of Florida & Florida State University students to live beachside, wander tidal pools just outside the lecture hall, take home a dissected shark skull and crew an offshore research survey. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/shar... Enrollment is open! 🦈

Congrats! 🔸🔹 Nico Cellinese, herbarium curator and curator of informatics here at the Florida Museum, is one of 33 @ufl.edu faculty members named 🐊 2026 UF Research Foundation Professors, chosen for excelling in their field of research! Full announcement: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/nico...

After a decade of research, Megan Ennes rolled out a free self-efficacy survey that she hopes will make it easier for science centers of all stripes to connect their educators with the resources they need to thrive: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/info... Study: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Museum Collections 📍 Florida Fossil Site The West Palm Beach fossil site, discovered in 1969, is one of the very few in Florida to produce three species of proboscideans: Columbian mammoth, American mastodon and the gomphothere Cuvieronius. Site summary: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vert...

Museum Collections 🪸 Invertebrate Paleontology Galleries From corals to worms, browse fossil specimens in our invertebrate paleontology collection, with photos and maps: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/... Featured Species: Ecphora bradleyae Specimen: # UF 47732 Locality: Sarasota Co., FL

Online Exhibit 🐸 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating Feature: Jambato Toad (Atelopus ignescens) Though once declared extinct, scientists are working to breed recently discovered populations of this species for conservation. 🎧 Story & more with Dave Blackburn: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

A new study on iNaturalist users: Highly and casually active citizen scientists contribute equally valuable data: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high... #CityNatureChallenge Are you participating this year? City Nature Challenge 🌎 April 24–27, 2026 Full info: www.citynaturechallenge.org

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records, photos and map. Shown: Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus), non-indigenous to Florida's freshwaters 🔗 Info & browse: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

Rice fueled many of the earliest civilizations and remains an indispensable source of food in the modern world. That might be about to change. Scientists warn that after 9,000 years of cultivation, rice has reached its thermal limit: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afte... Photo: Jialiang Gao

Museum Resource 🐍 Florida Snake ID Guide Easy visual ID and searchable tool for learning about our state's snakes including habitat, range, diet and lookalike species. Featured: Southern Watersnake (Nerodia fasciata) Snake profile: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-snak... NON-VENOMOUS

Museum Resource 🎶🐦 Florida Bird Sounds Learn to ID Florida’s birds by their calls! Our online guide has audio samples of birds like vireos, warblers, owls, herons and the iconic Florida Scrub Jay. www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/birds/florid... Bonus: listen to the now-extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow

Scientists warn that over the next 50 years, global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases will accelerate to a pace that is 5,000 times faster than cultivated rice has ever had to contend with. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afte... Study: doi.org/10.1038/s432...

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including our collection records, photos and map. Shown: Gulf Pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli), a marine invader to Florida's freshwaters 🔗 Info & browse: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

Online Exhibit 🌿 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating Feature: Rugel’s Pawpaw (Deeringothamnus rugelii) Our oldest Herbarium specimens were collected by Ferdinand Rugel and document Florida flora in the 1840s -- and much more. 🎧 Story & more with Mark Whitten: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

African frogs haven’t forgotten the ice ages. 🐸🧊 A new study shows ancient forest refugia in Central Africa align with the modern diversity of frogs. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afri... Study: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

City Nature Challenge 🌎 April 24–27, 2026 Are you participating this year? The worldwide collaboration to share nature observations to the iNaturalist app helps researchers understand species populations, habitat biodiversity or seasonal variations. Details: www.citynaturechallenge.org

Wisteria has become somewhat iconic in lush gardens in the Southeastern United States, but many plants you see are invasive in Florida. 🌿 There is a native species -- American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)! Five Facts: Wisteria in Florida www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/five...

“I realized we actually didn’t know how the whole ecosystem worked at all,” said Felicity Newell. A new study of the breeding seasons of tropical birds shows nearby communities can breed in opposite seasons in response to rainfall & resources. 🦗 Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/stud...

Pottery has been made all over the world for thousands of years, independently invented in multiple places. The first people inhabiting the Turks & Caicos Islands faced a number of technological challenges. www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/clea...

“There’s often this idea that we want everyone to be as highly active as possible and collect the most amount of data,” Erin Grady said. “Every type of observation and way of observing counts, which sounds cheesy, but it’s true.” Story + study: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high...

#MondayMood 🐠 Museum technology is shifting how specimens are processed, providing more accessibility for research, education, outreach and collaboration. Explore our online exhibit: Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl...

Congratulations! 👏👏👏 Michal Kowalewski has been selected as a 2025 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science! Michal is the Thompson chair of invertebrate paleontology here at the Florida Museum. Read: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/mich...

Citizen science contributions from both casual observers and highly active users can be equally valuable and even complement each other, says a new study of iNaturalist data. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high... Study: theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10....

Museum Resource 🐚 #MolluskMonday Who doesn't love a dichotomous key? The aquatic snail fauna of the southeastern United States has long been recognized for its richness and diversity. Check out our 👇 Freshwater Snails of Florida ID Guide: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/iz/resources...

March 20 🐸 World Frog Day! Learn to ID Florida's frogs by their calls with our online guide 🐸🎶 Florida Frog Calls: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-her... Also: March 24 📌 Science on Tap: Ribbit & Sip It Frogs + beer + herpetologist Dave Blackburn! Info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/event/scienc...

The evolutionary path that brought us to butterflies is intriguing. Moths originated 300 million years ago and diversified with a little help from a fungus and bacterium. Then... Scientists lay out what we do & don’t yet know about moths and butterflies: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

Apparently, today is Taxonomist Appreciation Day, which has been celebrated (albeit quietly) annually on March 19th. Here are some recent taxonomic works published by the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity @floridamuseum.bsky.social recently: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

#ICYMI 👏👏👏 Our Herbarium recently accessioned their 300,000th vascular plant specimen into the collection! Founded in 1891, the University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) here at the Florida Museum houses over 530,000 preserved plant specimens. More: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/...

Because their seeds are primarily dispersed by birds, a melastome species jumping from one island to another points to a bird making the journey, too. Mapping the results reveal ancient flight paths that fan out in all directions across the Caribbean. www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

Online Exhibit 🪱 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating Feature: Giant Seep Worms (Lamellibrachia luymesi) Giant Seep Worms can have very long life spans, growing to 2 meters long over 170 to 250 years. 🎧 Story and more with Jenna Moore: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

Exhibit Spotlight 🎨 Florida Oligocene #SciArt in our Florida Fossils exhibit helps to illustrate Florida's evolving ecosystems, bringing life to the fossils we display in exhibits. 🗝️ Check out the art and key + fossils from our collections: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blo...

Museum Resources 🩻 Digital Imaging Our Digital Imaging Division facilitates the production, processing and analysis of two- and three-dimensional digital image data. 🌈 Browse some of the many museum specimens they have worked on: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/digital-lab/...

Scientist Spotted 🦟 Our interim director David Reed talked to CNN for an article about how studying the DNA of pests like mosquitoes - and in David's research, head lice - can help us map the timeline and locations prehistoric humans: www.cnn.com/2026/03/11/s...

The arogos skipper is an endangered butterfly that was once common throughout much of the U.S. but is now reduced to a few small populations. Researchers are studying a population in Florida to learn more about its life cycle and conservation needs. www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/chas...

The University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) here at the Florida Museum, a collection of over 530,000 preserved plant specimens, marked a major milestone with their 300,000th vascular plant specimen being accessioned into the collection! 👏👏👏 What was it? www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/...

#ICYMI 🦋 Scientists lay out what we do and don’t yet know about moths and butterflies. Catch up on rare species with jaws, caddisfly carpentry, pollination before flowers evolved, carnivorous wasps, and a wild variety of hearing and sound-producing organs: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

New museum resource just dropped 📍 Interactive Digital St. Augustine, or iDigStAug, is an online database dedicated exclusively to the archaeology of colonial household sites in St. Augustine. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/arch... Site: idigstaug.ufarch.org

#ICYMI Fossils + Technology 🔬 A new study indicates it takes significantly fewer fossils than initially thought to accurately train an image-based AI algorithm, with big implications for paleontology. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/vert...

Frogs + Dave + beer is back! 🐸 March 24 🍺 Science on Tap: Ribbit & Sip It Leap into the fascinating world of frogs with herpetologist Dave Blackburn at a ribbeting Science on Tap with UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute at Cypress & Grove Brewing. Event: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/event/scienc...