Scientists have analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so big. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie... Study: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We are hiring. The Natural History Museum Denmark seeks a Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator in Vertebrate Paleontology. Duties are collection-based research, curation of collections, teaching and public engagement. Deadline: 18 May 2025. View full job posting: bit.ly/3XPIQcg

Congrats! 👏👏👏 So proud of our graduating @ufl.edu students and grateful they did their grad work with our faculty! Dr. Lazaro Viñola-López, advised by Jon Bloch, received his doctoral degree through the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, Dept of Biology 👉 www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/from-...

The early mammals that lived alongside the dinosaurs upwards of 150 million years ago were likely covered in dark and dusky greyish-brown fur, according to a quantitative reconstruction of Mesozoic mammal coloration in Science, hinting at their shrouded and nocturnal nature. scim.ag/41sKMZ9

Join our team teaching Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Calgary! We are hiring two positions to start in the Fall teaching in our new integrated curriculum.

A new study of the most complete skeleton of a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, Mixodectes pungens, has answered many questions about the enigmatic critter. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/a-62... Study: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our new study published today on a remarkably complete skeleton of Mixodectes from the early Paleocene of New Mexico! @purgatoriidae.bsky.social @abqtom.bsky.social @crowelljw.bsky.social @marytsilcox.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share our new paper on the most complete mixodectid fossil ever discovered! Phylogenetic results support Mixodectes as most closely related to primatomorphans (primates and colugos) among mammals. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

For our latest "Welcome to #Florida" podcast episode, we talked to Dr. Jonathan Bloch of UF about one of the most significant archaeological sites in the state -- which was originally found by a 5-year-old girl. Dig in! www.buzzsprout.com/1169570/epis...

Check out our children’s book on paleontology and life in the Eocene! This work stems from our NSF funded research on mammalian response to the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum in the Wind River and Bighorn basins of Wyoming. digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/165/

Fossil collectors in Florida have discovered an ancient sinkhole, now at the bottom of a river, which holds the remains of animals rarely seen in the state, including a type of giant armadillo, giant ground sloths, and an odd-looking tapir. Full story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/unde...

Fossils in space! 🚀 Friend of the Museum Rob Ferl, director of @ufastraeus.bsky.social, recently went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and took a few of our fossils with him—a snail, horse and early ancestor of modern primates. There's more: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/flor...

Welcome Glaucia Del-Rio, our new curator of ornithology! 👏👏👏 🦜🗺️ Along with her curator duties, she wants to establish a collection of cell cultures, both as a scientific resource and as insurance against extinction. More about Glaucia + her work: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/glau...

Museum Resource 🦣 Florida Vertebrate Fossils Florida has the richest fossil record of vertebrate animals of the eastern United States. Our paleontologists have highlighted a number of species & dig sites to tell the story of early Florida fossil exploration: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vert...

Museum Resource 🩻 Digital Imaging Gallery Our Digital Imaging Division produces two- and three-dimensional data from museum collections. Many are available on Sketchfab & Morphosource. Explore some of the specimens our digitization team has been working on: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/digital-lab/...

Welcome Vaughn Shirey, our newest curator of butterflies and moths! 🎉 👏👏👏🦋 Working in our McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, @vmshirey.bsky.social will help study and digitize our moth and butterfly collections. About his career & research: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/vaug...

ICYMI: we extended the deadline to January 23! We are hiring a 2-year postdoc @floridamuseum.bsky.social to help study the impact of climate change on mammalian functional diversity across the PETM. Email Jon Bloch/Arthur Porto with any questions. Apply here: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

Hello bsky! We are hiring two Postdocs @floridamuseum.bsky.social ! 1) Paleo + AI (NSF-funded, with @blochlab.bsky.social ): explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53... 2) AI for Biology (open-ended): explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53... Deadline Jan 15th. Please, RT! See also www.biovisionlab.com

Our new paper announcing a freely available database of 3D scans of primate skeletal material--a major effort led by Sergio Almécija & his team at the American Museum of Natural History. 🧪 🏺 #paleosky #anatomy #primates #anthropology #morphology #zoology #paleoanthropology #openscience

Job Alert: We are hiring a 2-year postdoc @floridamuseum.bsky.social to help study the impact of climate change on mammalian functional diversity across the PETM. Email Jon Bloch or Arthur Porto with any questions. @nsvitek.bsky.social Apply here: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

Congrats! 👏👏👏 We had several students graduating from the University of Florida today! We are so proud of their hard work and determination, and grateful they choose to do their graduate work with our faculty here at the Florida Museum.

Megan Ennes, our curator of museum education, has been named a research fellow by the National Academy of Sciences through the Gulf Research Program. The Early-Career Research Fellowships program supports emerging scientific leaders. More: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/nati...

From the Field ✈️ Julian Narvaez presented current work at the North American Paleontological Convention and connected with peers, and continued outreach: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/from-... 🌱 Travel funding supports professional development of student researchers here at the Florida Museum.

From the field ✈️ Liz Hurtado participated in the SPATIAL Short Course 2024, with lectures, labs, group projects and activities to network with peers. www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/from-... 🐦‍⬛ Travel funding supports professional development of student researchers here at the Florida Museum.

A paper in Nature reports on the use of fossilized samples of faeces and vomit to reconstruct the rise of the dinosaurs to become the dominant players in Earth’s ancient ecosystems. https://go.nature.com/412c4af 🧪

New paper! For all of you working with 3d scans (e.g. micro-CT, MRI), check out SPROUT, a rapid open-source tool for generating segmented and parcellated data, meaning your scans are separated into the individual elements without any manual labelling or training. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Team Limelight Rainforest! 🌳 Robert Guralnick, our curator of bioinformatics, is a member of an international team that won first place and $5 million in the five-year @xprize.bsky.social Rainforest competition. Read + watch: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/flor...

An #Equus-Dominated Middle Pleistocene (Irvingtonian) Vertebrate Fauna from Northcentral #Florida, USA 🐎 Richard C. Hulbert, Jr., Rachel E. Narducci, Robert W. Sinibaldi, Joseph R. Branin www.mdpi.com/2813-6284/2/...

Exploring Museum Collections 🦵 Tibia and fibula This was one of the largest species of giant ground sloth known from North America, with large individuals weighing as much as 3 tons. Featured fossil Species: Eremotherium eomigrans Specimen: # UF 206880 www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vert...

After a summer field season of carrying Paleocene-Eocene matrix out of the badlands in the Bighorn Basin, it is so exciting to see hundreds of tiny mammal teeth emerging from the screen washed concentrate!