Museum Collections 🐕 Doggo fossil Osbornodon iamonensis is an omnivorous, coyote-sized member of the dog family that lived in Florida during the early Miocene. Species: Osbornodon iamonensis Specimen: # UF/FGS 5255 *HOLOTYPE* More: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vert...

Museum Collections 🏺 Ceramic Type Gallery Our type collections of historic period archaeological ceramics (1492-1850) includes thousands of images of individual sherds, representing hundreds of different ceramic types. Browse and search: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/histarch/cer...

This butterfly was really three caterpillars in a trench coat 🐛🐛🐛 Butterflies in the genus Colobura are ubiquitous in C. & S. America. For 200 years, this genus was thought to contain one species. Turns out there were two more hiding in plain sight. www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/this...

Ten years ago, our Daniels Lab scientists and the brewers at First Magnitude collaborated on a new way to think about butterfly conservation. They decided to ask the community to raise a pint to raise awareness. #PollinatorWeek 🦋 Looking back and forward: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/...

When we think about pollinators, bees and butterflies are often the first to come to mind. But there are many other types of insects, and even some vertebrates, that can act as pollinators and also deserve appreciation: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/cele... #PollinatorWeek 🌻 June 22-28, 2026

#SciArt Spotlight 🐗 Florida Oligocene Art in our Florida Fossils exhibit helps to illustrate what Florida might have looked like as the sea levels dropped and animals migrated to this newly exposed land. 🗝️ Check out the art + key: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blo... 🖼️: by Carl Buell

Museum Collections 🐁 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating Feature: Southeastern Beach Mice “There are 8 species of beach mice that are found all along the coasts of Florida and Alabama, although one is already considered to be extinct.” 🎧 More with Verity Mathis www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

We're hiring! 🐟 Assistant Curator of Ichthyology This is a 12-month, tenure-track position 👇 🔸 Full info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/caree... 🔸 Apply via @ufl.edu: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/54... 🔸 About the Dept. of Natural History, Florida Museum: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/

Inner Beauty 🌈🐠 Ichthyologists us a process called clearing and staining (also known as diaphonization) to expose the cartilage and skeleton of fishes. Explore our online exhibit: Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl...

Museum Collections 🐚 Invertebrate Paleontology Galleries From bivalves to scaphopods, browse fossil specimens in our invertebrate paleontology collection, with photos: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/... Featured Species: Planorbella scalare Specimen: # UF 10408 Locality: Hillsborough Co., FL

Museum Resource 🦅 Florida Bird Sounds From Laughing Gulls to Woodcocks, listen to sound clips of many Florida bird species to learn to ID what's flying nearby: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/birds/florid... 💔 Includes the extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens).

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/...

Museum Collections 🦷 #Toothday The Inglis 1A fossil site was excavated in the mid-1960s as a result of the Cross Florida Barge Canal project. The site produced about 18,000 identifiable fossils representing at least 161 species. About the site: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vert...

Museum Collections 🌊 #WorldOceansDay Feature: Sclerosponge (Acanthochaetetes wellsi) Sclerosponges, a group of sponges, grow very slowly, so their limestone skeletons hold local climate records that can go back centuries. 🎧 More with Gustav Paulay: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

Museum Resource 🦎 Florida Amphibians & Reptiles Checklist Our herpetologists maintain a checklist of the established amphibians and reptiles known to occur in Florida, organized by currently accepted scientific name: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-her...

Online Exhibit 🌅 Women of the Everglades In the early 1900s, three influential Florida women, inspired by three different causes, laid the foundation for Everglades conservation - May Mann Jennings, Minnie Moore-Willson, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas. 🔗 www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl...

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records, photos and map. Shown: Chain Pickerel (Esox niger), indigenous to Florida's freshwaters 🔗 More info & browse gallery: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

Shark class allows @ufl.edu & FSU students to live beachside, wander tidal pools just outside the lecture hall, take home a dissected shark skull and crew an offshore research survey. 🦈 Watch www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvrx... Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/shar...

Museum Collections ⭐ Invertebrate Paleontology Galleries From barnacles to shrimp, browse fossil specimens in our invertebrate paleontology collection: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/... Featured Species: Kionaster petersonae Specimen: # UF 148379 *Holotype* Locality: Calhoun Co., FL

Scientists have discovered that one of the ocean’s most recognizable corals, the iconic “organ pipe coral” — long believed to be a single species — includes at least 15 genetically distinct lineages. 🪸 Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/hidd... Study: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The Turtle Death Layer coughed up a fossil with teeth marks, revealing a conflict between turtle and gar! 🐢 Paleontologist Jason Bourque recently described a new, extinct species of musk turtle that lived in Florida during the late Miocene. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/anci...

Bark Beetle Calligraphy 🪲 Can insects create art? In huge numbers, bark beetles inscribe their life stories onto dead wood. It is beautiful, and it lets you peek into a universe where life pulsates fast and at a tiny scale. Online exhibit with Jiri Hulcr: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl...

Exhibit #SciArt 🎨 Florida Miocene Paintings in our Florida Fossils exhibit help to illustrate Florida's evolving ecosystems, bringing life to the fossils we display in exhibits. 🗝️ Check out the art + key, plus shovel-tusker and giant otter fossils: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blo...

Hawkmoths hold the record for having the world's longest proboscis, the specialized feeding tubes insects use to drink. A new study shows how this structure evolved in hawkmoths over the last 44 million years. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/evol... Study: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records, photos and map. Shown: Flier (Centrarchus macropterus), indigenous to Florida's freshwaters 🔗 More info & browse gallery: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

May 20 🐝 #WorldBeeDay! Buzz over and learn a little bit about the 300+ species of bees that live in our state, including the 29 species endemic to Florida! Five Facts: Bees in Florida: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/five... 🐝🐝🐝

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...