Research & Collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History

09/10/2026

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
🔗 More info & browse gallery:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/florida-fishes-gallery/goldline-snakehead/

The goldline snakehead inhabits canals, pools, swamps and lakes with little or no current. This species is often found in beds of submerged aquatic vegetation.

It has an elongate body that is cylindrical anteriorly and tapering posteriorly and a flattened head. The eye is in a dorsolateral position anteriorly, and there is a bright orange ocellus present on the upper caudal fin base.

09/09/2026

Museum Collections 🐾 Beautiful armadillo
Browse our fossil vertebrate collections in a searchable database with photos and map:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/vertpaleo/professionals/collections/

Featured:
Dasypus bellus, an extinct species of armadillo, was more than twice the size of the living nine-banded armadillo but likely had a similar diet. Specimens have been found in numerous sites across Florida. More:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vertebrate-fossils/species/dasypus-bellus/

Species: Dasypus bellus
Specimen: # UF/VP 61906
Location: Hillsborough Co., FL
Collector: John Clark

09/08/2026

Museum Collections 🏺 Ceramic Vessel

"This Taíno vessel was recovered from the site of En Bas Saline in Haiti," said Gifford Waters, our Historical Archaeology collection manager. "It’s a reminder that the New World Columbus discovered was already inhabited by people."

He added: Some archaeologists and historians estimate that up to 100 million native people lived in the Americas before Europeans arrived. This particular vessel was made by the Taíno people who occupied the island of Hispaniola and many of the Caribbean islands.

Online Exhibit 🎧 Read the story + listen to more with Gifford: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/object/ceramic-vessel/

Feature:
Ceramic Vessel
Made by Taíno people, En Bas Saline, Haiti
Dates to AD 1200-1500

Collection: Historical Archaeology

📸 Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

09/07/2026

🦣 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:
https://video.wedu.org/video/greater-wauchula-fossils-hi55ib/

09/06/2026

Exhibit Art 🎨 Florida Fossils
The power of science art! Visitors get a better sense of what Florida might have looked like during the Eocene when the Earth was warmer and the land that would become our state was under water.

🗝️ The flora and fauna represented in this painting + key:

1. Thalassodendron auricula-leprosis (sea grass)
2. Velates floridanus (extinct Florida nerite)
3. Cymodocea (sea grass)
4. Oyenaster oblidus (sea star)
5. Hyotissa podagrina (gouty oyster)
6. Brittlestar
7. Striatolamia macrota (sand tiger shark)
8. Swimming crab
9. Branching coral
10. Caulastrea portoricensis (coral)
11. Undetermined crocodilian

Learn about this painting by David Miller, phantom fossils, seagrass meadows and toothed whales:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blog/florida-eocene-painting-by-david-miller/

09/05/2026

Skunkvine is also called stinkvine or some variations of the name. When you crush or break a leaf, it smells like sewage because compounds in the leaves generate an odor reminiscent of sulfur or rotting cabbage.

Five Facts: Skunkvine in Florida 🦨

Skunkvine, Paederia foetida, is an aggressive, twining vine in the coffee family, or Rubiaceae. Plants produce multiple stems up to 35 feet long, which grow across the ground, over trees and shrubbery, or around and over artificial structures like fences and lamp posts. In northern parts of t

09/04/2026

Benjamin Genter, a senior at the University of Florida, recently received the Henri Seibert Award for best student talk at the annual Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans.

Ben is an out-of-state student majoring in wildlife ecology and statistics, and he has a special interest in reptiles. He is working with Coleman Sheehy, herpetology collection manager here at the Florida Museum, and with Ed Myers, a research scientist at the California Academy of Sciences.

At the meeting, Ben talked about his research on crowned snakes in the genus Tantilla, which are native to the North and South American continents. He is especially interested in the three species that live in the southeastern United States.

More about his research work and student career:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/uf-student-receives-award-for-best-presentation-at-national-biology-conference/

09/03/2026

Discover the vibrant world of these tiny spiders and the innovative research being done at the University of Florida to learn more about the arachnids’ surprisingly good vision.

Take a look at Lisa Taylor's research work via UF Explore:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0j823jaeNY

Online Exhibit 🕺💃 Colorful Dancing Spiders
🔗 https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/online/colorful-dancing-spiders/

📷 Photo courtesy of Colin Hutton

09/02/2026

Tiny transmitters could unlock monarch migration mysteries in Florida

Florida Museum and Xerces Society scientists recently started using small, solar-powered radio transmitters—about the size and weight of a grain of rice—to track the movements of monarch butterflies. The transmitters will help researchers better understand how these insects move across the landscape and exactly where it is they go to.

🦋 Story:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/tiny-transmitters-could-unlock-monarch-migration-mysteries-in-florida/

“For decades, we’ve known monarchs return to Florida every year, but we still don’t fully understand where many of them go afterward or how they move across the landscape,” said Jaret Daniels, curator of Lepidoptera here at the Florida Museum. “These tags give us a chance to begin answering those questions in real time.”

Monarch butterflies have been proposed for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and learning where they travel is a critical part of developing a conservation plan to protect them.

09/01/2026

Museum Collections 🌳 Gumbo Limbo
These wind-tolerant trees are wonderfully suited to our coastal South Florida habitats. It's sometimes called a “tourist tree”. Learn more from UF/IFAS: https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/trees-and-shrubs/trees/gumbo-limbo/

Featured from our herbarium collection:
Species: Bursera simaruba
Specimen: # FLAS 100800
Location: Lee Co., FL
Explore our Herbarium: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herbarium/