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Florida Museum of Natural History

@floridamuseum.bsky.social

The Florida Museum of Natural History inspires people to care about life on Earth. Located on the University of Florida campus, we are also the state museum.

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Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 22h ago

#SpookySeason Science 🐠 Online Exhibit Ichthyologists use two main techniques to prepare skeletons from preserved specimens of all shapes and sizes without losing their skeletal positions. Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl...

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2d ago

Spooky natural history 😱 Horrific hunter Measuring up to 2 inches long, cicada killer wasps evolved their disturbingly large proportions to immobilize cicadas so their young can slowly eat them alive. More: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/spoo... 📷: Alejandro Santillana, Insects Unlocked, CC0

a detailed close-up of a large dead wasp curled up on its side with heavy abdomen with a sharp stinger

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 3d ago

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

two specimens of small, elongated fishes with lobed fins and dark gray-brown mottled coloring on their bodies. There are bright orange and soft blue stripes on their larger fins and small patches of orange along their bellies

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 6d ago

Museum Collections 🧵 Seminole Dolls The Seminole and Miccosukee doll collection at the Florida Museum covers the 1930s to early 2000s: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sflarch/ethn... Explore some of the details like faces, jewelry and hairstyles represented: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sflarch/ethn...

close up of a selection of dolls with elaborate and detailed patchwork clothing and round heads made of some kind of rough fiber material

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 7d ago

#ICYMI Archaeologists have long debated how pottery from Native Americans of the Mississippian culture in what is now the Southeast U.S. wound up in Tampa Bay, FL. The answer: a secretive guild of migrant pottery artisans: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/arch... Study: doi.org/10.1017/aaq....

Three white trays filled with microscope slides. One slide is tilted up, labeled 'NW-1310' with a specimen.

A hand holding a small, weathered stone star-shaped object against a backdrop of fragmented rock textures.

eight pieces of irregular, ancient pottery are lined up in two rows next to glass slides with a thin section of brown substance that might be a sample cut from the potsherds

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last wk.

The BIG news 📢 Nov. 23, 2026 Our reopening date has been confirmed! 🎉 We are so happy to welcome everyone back to our exhibits building just in time for the holidays. Much more news to come as we wrap up construction and prepare to reopen our doors. 📢 www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/visit/expans...

a large mammoth skeleton with huge, curving tusks looms over head against the blue walls of a museum gallery with dappled sunlight falling against one side of an entrance to a Water Shapes Florida exhibit doorway

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last wk.

Work with us! 🐾 Assistant Curator of Environmental Archaeology This is a 12-month, tenure-track position 👇 🔸 Full info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/caree... 🔸 About the Department of Natural History at the Florida Museum: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/ 🏛️📌 Apply by Oct. 16, 2026

A person wearing glasses uses a digital caliper to measure a shell from a tray of numerous shells in a lab.

Two people kneeling by a rectangular archaeological excavation site, using brushes to clear dirt from stones.

Four people work in a storage room filled with shelves of boxes, using laptops and lamps to examine specimens.

An adult and two students examine seashells and small fossils in plastic bins in a classroom with educational posters on the walls.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last wk.

Vaughn Shirey, a curator at our McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, is fascinated by his chosen field of study, but also sees a connection between conservation & creativity. Shadow puppets for science: Exploring the biodiversity of imagination www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/events/blog/...

Five people gather around a table covered in various black cut-out silhouettes of insects and plants.

People gather around a white sheet illuminated by a light, attracting various moths and insects at night.

A man with glasses and a beard holds a black paper cutout of a moth.

A person in a tropical shirt looks at various insect cutouts suspended on a blue-lit fabric.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2w ago

Scientist Spotted 🦜 Our ornithologist Glaucia Del-Rio talked to the 'Okay, But Birds' podcast about Amazonian antbirds and her research in their newest episode: Okay, but griffins, and ligers, and birds, oh my! www.okaybutbirds.com/episodes/e41 🦜

E41: Okay, but griffins, and ligers, and birds, oh my! — Okay, But... Birds

Griffins and ligers are myths. Bird hybrids are real, and two Amazonian antbirds show where one species ends.

okaybutbirds.com

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2w ago

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

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2w ago

Archaeologists have long debated how pottery from Native Americans of the Mississippian culture in what is now the Southeast U.S. wound up in Tampa Bay, FL. The answer: a secretive guild of migrant pottery artisans. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/arch... Study: doi.org/10.1017/aaq....

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2w ago

#ICYMI 🦀 Sea snakes are known to have a variety of marine hitchhikers living on them. Biologists expected to find oceanic rafting crabs in the genus Planes in the mix, but found the wrong species instead. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/plan... Study onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

close up on a bright yellow surface covered in irregular raised circles that could be scales of some kind and in the middle is a very small and nearly transparent animal that looks somewhat like a crab

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 3w ago

Pam & Doug Soltis, @ufl.edu distinguished professors based out of the Florida Museum, recently received this year's Peter Raven Award by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. They're adept at making complex scientific topics easy to understand. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/pam-...

two people are sitting at a wooden table in a library surrounded by shelves of books and there are sheets of paper with pressed plants attached to them spread out in front of them

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 3w ago

Eleven undergrad students at @ufl.edu are the first to assemble the pignut hickory tree genome. The work was part of a hands-on research course open to all majors and taught by instructors here at the Florida Museum: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/it-t... Study: academic.oup.com/g3journal/ar...

there are four large yellow-green fruits on a branch covered with thick clusters of long, pointed leaves

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 3w ago

Museum Collections 🌾 Fakahatchee Grass This clumping Florida-native grass is a larval food plant for the Byssus skipper butterfly. From UF/IFAS: gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/ornam... Collection: Species: Tripsacum dactyloides Specimen: # FLAS 149700 www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herbarium/

Herbarium specimen of a long tuft of reedy grasses folded up and carefully attached to a white sheet with an information label at the bottom and a FLAS Herbarium stamp near the top.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 3w ago

We're hiring! 🐾 Assistant Curator of Environmental Archaeology This is a 12-month, tenure-track position 👇 🔸 Full info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/caree... 🔸 About the Department of Natural History at the Florida Museum: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/ 🏛️📌 Apply by Oct. 16, 2026

A woman in a striped shirt holds a fragment of pottery while standing in a storage area with shelves of archival boxes.

A person wearing a cap sits on a beach, holding a sieve over a bucket with other buckets and nets on the sand.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 4w ago

Planes on a snake? Sea snakes are known to have a variety of marine hitchhikers living on them. Biologists expected to find oceanic rafting crabs in the genus Planes in the mix, but found the wrong species instead. Story + study: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/plan...

Three clear vials of fluid each have a very tiny nearly transparent crab in them and an information label on the side

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 4w ago

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

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 4w ago

Museum Collections 🐾 Beautiful armadillo Browse our fossil vertebrate collections in a searchable database with photos and map: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/pr... Featured Species: Dasypus bellus Specimen: # UF/VP 61906 About this extinct armadillo: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vert...

an oblong slab of fossil has an unusual surface that looks like a series of many small overlapping shingles in slightly irregular rows. Below it is a 4 inch scale bar labeled Florida Museum of Natural History.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Museum Collections 🏺 Ceramic Vessel "This Taíno vessel was recovered from the site of En Bas Saline in Haiti," said archaeologist Gifford Waters. "It’s a reminder that the New World Columbus discovered was already inhabited by people." 🎧 More of the story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

a wide bowl-like ceramic vessel has a flared lip above a slight waist. The dark pottery is decorated with two rows of indented dots and was broken into large pieces and carefully restored. There is still a large section of the back missing and a small rectangular section of the bowl at the front

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Benjamin Genter, a senior at @ufl.edu majoring in wildlife ecology and statistics, received the Henri Seibert Award for best student talk at the annual Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans. About his research and student career: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/uf-s...

Two men in a laboratory setting examine biological specimens. On the left, a young man in a purple t-shirt looks on as a man on the right, wearing glasses and a grey fleece jacket, uses a tool to lift a long, thin snake specimen from a jar. Several glass jars containing preserved snake specimens sit on a black table, with lab shelving and equipment visible in the background.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Discover the vibrant world of these tiny spiders and the @ufl.edu research on these arachnids’ surprisingly good vision. Online Exhibit 🕺💃 Colorful Dancing Spiders www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl... Lisa Taylor's work via UF Explore / @ufresearch.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0j8...

Extreme close-up of a jumping spider with red pedipalps and blue facial markings on a green leaf.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Museum Collections 🌳 Gumbo Limbo These wind-tolerant trees are wonderfully suited to our coastal South Florida habitats. More from UF/IFAS: gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/trees... Herbarium feat.: Species: Bursera simaruba Specimen: # FLAS 100800 www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herbarium/

Herbarium specimen of Bursera simaruba with dried brown leaves and clusters of small brown flowers on a white sheet.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

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

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Sept 8 🎣 Science on Tap: Keeping it (Swamp) Eel We're joining UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute at Cypress & Grove Brewing Co. for this FREE event. Rob Robins, our ichthyology collection manager, will be talking about swamp eels! Event info: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/event/sot-ke...

a distorted fisheye lens view of a person's legs under water and a rippled view of the rest of them holding a fish net into the clear water along the rocky bottom

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Scientists are tracking monarch butterflies with small, solar-powered radio transmitters—about the size and weight of a grain of rice. Florida Museum and Xerces Society researchers want to understand exactly where they go and how they get there. 🦋 Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/tiny...

Two men in blue shirts stand in a wooded area with Spanish moss, each holding a large sampling net.

A man uses a digital caliper to measure the wing of a butterfly held in his hand.

Hands holding a smartphone to take a close-up photo of a monarch butterfly being held carefully between two fingers.

A monarch butterfly flies above a person's hands holding an open white mesh butterfly net.

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

Museum Collections 🦪 Invertebrate Paleontology Galleries From barnacles to shrimp, browse fossil specimens in our invertebrate paleontology collection—with photos: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/... Featured Species: Radiolucina waccamawensis Specimen: # UF 105316 Collectors: Roger Portell

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · last mo.

#ICYMI NEW Museum Resource 🐠 Fish Families of the World Gallery Searchable gallery of fish families of the world, with photos of specimens, CT scans and 3D models, x-rays, links to our specimen database, notes on characteristics, habitats, etc. Browse: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

a small preserved fish specimen is somewhat wrinkled and orange brown with a prominent head and mouth, a very short body, and a tail that is just a brief folded pale fan. It looks like it had a short appendage on the tip of its snout. It is photographed on a gray background next to a ruler

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Scientist Spotted 🦣 Rachel Narducci, our vertebrate paleontology collection manager, talked with WEDU | PBS about fossil collecting, the Peace River and Florida's natural history—both above and below sea level. Watch: video.wedu.org/video/greate...

Greater | Greater Wauchula | Fossils | Season 2026

Join fossil hunters on the Peace River to unearth Florida’s ancient hidden beasts!

video.wedu.org

Florida Museum of Natural History @floridamuseum.bsky.social · 2mo ago

An international team of scientists collected and carbon-dated more than 7,500 marine fossils to understand time averaging—in which organisms from different time periods are preserved together in the same fossil bed. Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/pale... Study: doi.org/10.1073/pnas...