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Research News

Michelle LeFebvre

bird specimen showing brown feathers along the back and blue feathers on the head

Life on Earth

Unique dove species is the dodo of the Caribbean and in similar danger of dying out

March 17, 2025

On first inspection, the Cuban blue-headed quail dove doesn’t look like much: drab brown feathers, a slender beak, a pronounced…
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Group of people poses for a photo.

News in Brief

Randell Research Center teams up with GatorCorps and Gulf Scholars to tackle climate change on Pine Island, Florida

December 18, 2024

The Florida Museum’s Randell Research Center was hit by two major hurricanes this year. Helene rolled along the Gulf Coast…
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Photo of a gumbo limbo tree

Hires & Promotions

Michelle LeFebvre assumes new role as director of Randell Research Center

November 21, 2024

The Florida Museum’s Randell Research Center has a new director! Michelle LeFebvre, curator of South Florida archaeology and ethnography, as…
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Person stands between shelves in a museum collection while holding a shell.

Awards & Honors

Michelle LeFebvre receives 2024 UF excellence award for assistant professors

June 28, 2024

The Florida Museum of Natural History’s Michelle LeFebvre is a recipient of this year’s University of Florida excellence awards for…
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Two parrot specimens arranged on a white surface above a box full of parrot fossils

Life on Earth

Caribbean parrots thought to be endemic are actually relicts of millennial-scale extinction

September 25, 2023

In a new study published in PNAS, researchers have extracted the first ancient DNA from Caribbean parrots, which they compared…
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Rodent fossils arranged on a white background

Life on Earth

Rodent extinctions in Hispaniola may have been caused by humans

January 10, 2023

The island of Hispaniola once had among the highest rodent diversity in the Caribbean, supporting 11 species that coexisted for…
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Satellite map of Fort Myers and surrounding islands

Grants & Initiatives

Archaeologists awarded NSF grant to survey Florida cultural heritage sites damaged by Hurricane Ian

December 19, 2022

The National Science Foundation has awarded emergency funding to archaeologists at three institutions to survey cultural heritage sites damaged by…
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Cultural Heritage

The persistent effects of colonialism in Caribbean science

June 1, 2022

Prior to the first world war, sprawling European empires collectively controlled roughly 80% of Earth’s landmass. Following WWII, that percentage…
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five fossil bones

Life on Earth

Extinct Caribbean bird’s closest relatives hail from Africa, South Pacific

March 16, 2021

In a genetic surprise, ancient DNA shows the closest family members of an extinct bird known as the Haitian cave-rail…
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hutia skull

Cultural Heritage

Hungry for hutia? Our taste for Bahamas’ ‘most peaceable rodent’ shaped its diversity

January 28, 2020

The Bahamian hutia, a large Caribbean rodent with a blissed-out disposition, presents a curious case study in how human food…
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Contact Info

Florida Museum of Natural History
Gainesville, FL 32611

Media inquiries:
Jerald Pinson, Science Writer

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