Research & Collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History

06/17/2026

Museum Resource 🦈 International Shark Attack File
Our researchers maintain the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), the worlds only scientifically documented, comprehensive database of all known shark attacks.
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/

Check out maps and data, as well as trends and analysis to understand where, when and why shark-human interactions happen. Plus, learn some practical tips to reduce your risk while at the beach and in the water.
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/shark-attacks/reduce-risk/

The Florida Program for Shark Research (FPSR), directed by Dr. Gavin Naylor and staffed by a team of research scientists and educators, focusing on shark research, biodiversity and conservation.
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sharks/

06/16/2026

Inner Beauty 🌈🐠 Ichthyologists (fish biologists) use two main techniques to prepare skeletons from preserved specimens of all shapes and sizes without losing their natural skeletal positions: clearing and staining and computed tomography (CT) scanning.

There is beauty in the process of clearing and staining (also known as diaphonization), a process that uses a digestive enzyme called trypsin to clear away soft tissue but not the collagen, which supports the skeleton in place. Chemicals are used to stain cartilage blue and bone red. This method has been used for over 100 years and is still used today in natural history collections, remaining an affordable and easily accessible option.

The specimen is stored in glycerin which makes the specimen look clear because glycerin has the same refraction index (how light spreads from one medium to another) as the collagen, the material supporting the skeleton.

Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection
Explore online:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/online/inner-beauty/

Featured: Bowfin
Scientific name: Amia calva
Native Distribution: Mostly eastern North America
Habitat: Freshwater
Specimen: Florida Museum, UF 18751

06/15/2026

Museum Collections 🐚 Invertebrate Paleontology Galleries
From bivalves to scaphopods, browse fossil specimens in our invertebrate paleontology collection, with photos and maps: https://floridamuseum.ufl.edu/invertpaleo/galleries/

Featured
Species: Planorbella scalare
Specimen: # UF 10408
Locality: Hillsborough Co., FL

06/14/2026

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida

Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including similar species, collection records, photos and map.
🔗 More info & browse full gallery:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/florida-fishes-gallery/

Shown:
TOP Redface Topminnow (Fundulus rubrifrons): https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/florida-fishes-gallery/redface-topminnow/

BOTTOM Banded Topminnow (Fundulus cingulatus): https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/florida-fishes-gallery/banded-topminnow/

Both are indigenous to Florida's freshwaters

06/13/2026

Museum Resource 🐍 Florida Snake ID Guide
Easy visual ID and searchable tool for learning about our state's snakes including habitat, range, diet and look-alike species.

Featured: Apalachicola Kingsnake (Lampropeltis meansi)
NON-VENOMOUS

Most adult Apalachicola Kingsnakes are about 36-48 inches (90-122 cm) in total length. These snakes are variable in coloration and distinguished from all other kingsnakes by their overall light body coloration, having either narrow or wide crossbands with considerably lightened color between the bands, or being non-banded (striped or patternless). Banded individuals have fewer than 26 yellowish and usually wide crossbands down the back. The neck is indistinct, and the scales are smooth and shiny. Banded juveniles are mostly black with white or yellowish crossbands down the body. Striped and patternless juveniles are mostly black and lack light crossbands.

They occur in the eastern and central Florida Panhandle, primarily in the eastern Apalachicola lowlands south of Telogia Creek. However, Apalachicola Kingsnakes are known to interbreed with Eastern Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula) throughout areas surrounding this range

👉 Apalachicola Kingsnakes consume many species of venomous snakes and appear to be immune to their venom. They can even consume snakes longer than themselves by folding the prey over itself in their stomachs as it is being swallowed.

Full info and browse more:

NON-VENOMOUS Other common names Apalachicola King Snake Basic description Most adult Apalachicola Kingsnakes are about 36-48 inches (90-122 cm) in total length. These snakes are variable in coloration and distinguished from all other kingsnakes by their overall light body coloration, having eith

06/12/2026

In the 1980s, Florida Museum archaeologist Kathleen Deagan set out in search of Fort Mose. After 250 years, the only evidence of the fort was buried underground. Using historical documents and maps as guides, the search narrowed to a small island in the salt marsh just two miles north of St. Augustine. Excavations revealed evidence of the fort – its moat and some interior structures, and fragments from daily life.

Online Exhibit 📌 Fort Mose
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/online/fort-mose/

In 1738, the Spanish established the fort and town of Fort Mose (pronounced “Moh-say”), the first legally sanctioned free Black town in what is now the United States. Enslaved Africans risked their lives to escape English plantations in the Carolinas and find freedom among the Spanish living at St. Augustine.

While slavery was certainly the dominant practice at the time, Fort Mose sheds light on the little-known story of free Black people in colonial America. Details about this settlement were lost to history as Florida changed hands several times.

06/11/2026

Fossilized fight 🐢 Paleontologist Jason Bourque was preparing a fossil from the 'Turtle Death Layer' to describe a new, extinct species of Miocene musk turtle and was surprised to find teeth marks from a gar — a fish with chilling chompers!

Article: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/ancient-altercations-between-musk-turtles-and-alligator-gars-recorded-in-floridas-fossil-record/

Paleontologist Jason Bourque recently described a new, extinct species of musk turtle that lived in Florida during the late Miocene roughly five-and-a-half million years ago. While preparing one of the many turtle shells, Jason noticed a miniscule tooth fragment embedded in a tiny pit in the shell. And then another one in another pit nearby the first.

“I immediately thought of gar. Their teeth fall out pretty regularly, and we find hundreds and hundreds of their scales and teeth at Montbrook. But that was almost too easy.”

He briefly considered actual alligators, but the teeth looked like fish, and modern Alligator gars are known to eat crabs and small turtles.

Jason named the new species Sternotherus pugnatus, the epithet being a Latin variation of the word pugnacious. It’s not the first time this adjective has been used to describe the behavior of musk turtles once their slow anger has been sufficiently roused, but it seemed especially fitting for a scrappy species that went up against a predator several times bigger than itself and came out with only a few minor bite marks.

Story: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/ancient-altercations-between-musk-turtles-and-alligator-gars-recorded-in-floridas-fossil-record/

Paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2025.2602686

06/11/2026

Museum Resource 🦅 Florida Bird Sounds
From Laughing Gulls to Woodcocks, listen to sound clips of many Florida bird species to learn to ID what's flying nearby:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/birds/florida-bird-sounds/

💔 Includes the extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens).

Featured: Osprey at our Randell Research Center in SW Florida. Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace

06/10/2026

Museum Resources 🩻 Digital Imaging
Our Digital Imaging Division facilitates the production, processing and analysis of two- and three-dimensional digital image data. 🌈 Browse some of the many museum specimens they have worked on:
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/digital-lab/gallery/

06/09/2026

Museum Collections 🦷
The Inglis 1A fossil site was excavated in the mid-1960s as a result of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, a massive federal project meant to allow commercial barge traffic between the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida. The canal project was eventually stopped over environmental objections.

The dig site produced about 18,000 identifiable fossils representing at least 161 species.
About the site: https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-vertebrate-fossils/sites/inglis-1a/

Featured:
Spilogale putorius, # UF/VP 18082
Aenocyon edwardii, # UF/VP 18049
Urocyon citrinus, # UF/VP 18060
Chasmaporthetes ossifragus, # UF/VP 18089