Museum-Voices-logoMuseums are exciting, dynamic places. There are curators conducting cutting-edge research, collection managers carefully cataloging specimens, educators inspiring the next generation of scientists, exhibit designers crafting immersive experiences for visitors, and other activities occurring every day that many people don’t associate with museums.

Museum Voices is an opportunity for staff and graduate students to share their experiences with the world. The blogs may be run by individuals or entire labs or departments. Each has a unique perspective, and combined, the voices weave a colorful picture of museum life and discovery. Come see what we’re up to and join the conversation!

Recent Posts:

Skunk Addition

From: Montbrook Fossil Dig

  As Bob Tarnuzzer was sorting through and glueing Montbrook specimens, he found an intriguing distal humerus (the part of the upper arm bone that ends by the elbow).   Turns out, it belonged to a member of the skunk family, Mephitidae. This family was previously unknown from the site, so is an addition to […]

I am frog. Hear me roar!

From: Happy Flippers

The Florida Snake ID Guide on our site is incredibly popular, and looking at the Google Analytics for this section of the site is like a weather report and holiday report. The better the weather, and the more free time people have, makes visits to the ID Guide goes up. It makes sense. If there […]

Doug Soltis Elected to the National Academy of Sciences!

From: Laboratory of Molecular Systematics & Evolutionary Genetics

The National Academy of Sciences announce last week that Doug Soltis was elected to the Academy! See the Florida Museum’s press release by Natalie van Hoose.

Mesoamerican Artifacts

From: Latin American Online Exhibit

See Mesoamerican Bibliography in Mesoamerican Bibliography Tab Plate 1. 85-8-12 Mexico Nayarit, Protoclassic (100 B.C.– A.D. 300) Kneeling Female Figurine Fired Clay Dimensions: H 11.5 cm x W 8 cm x D 4.5 cm (NX) This figurine style can be traced back to the Protoclassic period (100 BC-AD 300) in Nayarit, one of the three states that […]

Blue in a sea of green

From: Experience Exhibits

The ubiquitous Blue Morpho, Morpho helenor or Morpho peleides, as many butterfly houses list them, is easily the king of any butterfly garden that displays exotic butterflies. Few butterflies capture the beauty of nature and the imagination of people like the Blue Morpho, and it is nearly inconceivable to picture the “Butterfly Rainforest” exhibit without […]

Ordway Lab back in FL!

From: Ordway Lab of Ecosystem Conservation

The entire lab is back on campus after returning from field sites all around the world! Now our attention moves to data crunching, analyses, proposal writing, and, of course, preparations for the next field season…… Spring 2017 from left: Felicity, Mitch, Scott, Harry, Ian, Diego, Daniel, Stephanie, Elise.

Resolutions (Not Really)

From: Webology

Ah, the turn of a new year. Nothing like it to inspire some better habits and righting some areas you’ve been slacking on…like flossing, regular exercise, or say, posting on your blog. We’ve been working at a furious pace in the Web Office and this blog has taken a back seat, unfortunately. I was hoping […]

Postdoc opportunity in clade definitions for the Tree of Life

From: The Cellinese Lab

We are seeking a second postdoctoral fellow to support the Phyloreferencing project. Our ideal candidate is a biologist by training, and has strong expertise in systematic biology. The focus of your work would be on working with select NSF GoLife projects to develop meaningful phyloreferences and to use these in proof-of-concept applications for aggregating trait […]

Botanical Drawing & Botany 2016

From: Blue Rim Paleobotany

In late July and early August, 2016, I attended the Botany Conference, which was held in Savannah, GA.  On the Sunday before the main sessions started, I participated in a workshop on Botanical Drawing.  It was taught by Alice Tangerini, the staff illustrator in the Botany Department at the Smithsonian.  You can see some of […]

iDig Hellbenders

From: Freshwater Herpetology

Check out the iDigBio May 2016 Biodiversity Spotlight on the Hellbender salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) written by PhD student, Kirsten Hecht.

Crooked Island

From: Changing Plant and Animal Communities of the Bahamas

In March of 2015, our team (David Steadman, Angelo Soto-Centeno, Nancy Albury, Michael Albury, Harlan Gough, Kelly Delancy, Hayley Singleton, and Neil Duncan) went to Crooked Island to explore caves for intact fossil material, archaeological sites, and bats. After our departure, Janet Franklin and her students, Julie Ripplinger and Pep Serra, from ASU arrived on […]

Formicidae

From: Special Projects Lab

Our lab’s Plant for Wildlife project uses colored pan traps to survey the insect diversity present in suburban environments in and around Gainesville, FL. Though our study focuses on likely pollinators, other groups of insects that are not usually thought of as effective pollinators are trapped as well. One of the most common insect families […]

Today’s the big day!

From: Franciscan Missions of La Florida

Today was the big day, the 450th Anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine! While the focus of our research has been on the 1677-1728 church and convento at Mission Nombre de Dios, these excavations were also part of a public archaeology program in association with the 450th. Celebrations started this past Friday and culminated […]

Welcome to this webpage on the systematics of Euptychiina!

From: Systematics of Euptychiina

Systematics of Euptychiina A project funded in part by the National Science Foundation (DEB# 1256742) Major collaborating organizations: University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom Goals: 1. Reconstruct the phylogeny of Euptychiina using both molecular […]

Giant Ants!

From: Florida Museum Imagery

Last Tuesday two large-scale bronze ant sculptures were installed on the front lawn of the Florida Museum of Natural History. Each sculpture weighs 1,100 pounds and had to be forklifted from the delivery truck to the ground. The sculptures came to the museum through a University of Florida program called Creative B. Each year the […]

The Adventures of Jenna and Mandy: Mission Impossible?

From: Adventures in Spineless Science

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, will be to find the worm Chaetopterus pergamentaceus from its type locality of “Antilles.” Armed with that informative location description (thanks, Cuvier), Jenna’s keen sense of worm-dar, and Google Earth, we gladly accepted the mission and headed off to Puerto Rico for 10 days of intensive worm […]