Scientists: ‘Time is ripe’ to use big data for planet-sized plant questions
A group of Florida Museum of Natural History scientists has issued a “call to action” to use big data to tackle longstanding questions about plant...
New butterfly named for pioneering 17th-century entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian
More than three centuries before initiatives to increase the number of women in STEM fields, 52-year-old Maria Sibylla Merian sailed across the Atlantic on a...
Oldest-known ancestor of modern primates may have come from North America, not Asia
About 56 million years ago, on an Earth so warm that palm trees graced the Arctic Circle, a mouse-sized primate known as Teilhardina first curled its fingers...
Packing a suitcase for the future: Introducing Bahamian schoolkids to native people of the past
As University of Florida archaeologist Bill Keegan studies the ancient Lucayan people, inhabitants of the Caribbean for hundreds of years, he must rewrite the...
How ancient Mayan shell decor led to a new look at freshwater mussels south of the border
The ancient Maya are not particularly known for their love of freshwater mussels. Mathematics, maize, pyramids and human sacrifice, yes. But bivalves? Not so...
Florida monarch butterfly populations have dropped 80 percent since 2005
A 37-year survey of monarch populations in North Central Florida shows that caterpillars and butterflies have been declining since 1985 and have dropped by 80...
Forgotten for decades, rediscovered watercolor collection features hundreds of Florida plants
Botanist Mark Whitten was rummaging in an old drawer in the University of Florida Herbarium for tracing paper when he discovered something unexpected: hundreds...
New Earth systems institute to communicate environmental issues to Floridians
The University of Florida has launched the Thompson Institute for Earth Systems, an outreach-focused center that aims to advance public understanding of the...
Study provides road map for measuring animal, plant traits to meet global biodiversity goals
An international team of researchers has outlined a plan for how to measure changes in key traits of animals and plants and provide these data to policymakers...
The walking dead: Fossils on the move can distort patterns of mass extinctions
Using the fossil record to accurately estimate the timing and pace of past mass extinctions is no easy task, and a new study highlights how fossil evidence can...