three almond shaped fish specimens are set in a row. The top has a dark body and blue fins and face with pink tips while the bottom two are silver with dark stripes. The lowest one looks like a juvenile

a screenshot showing search criteria fields down the left side of a map of Florida with red pins clustered along the south east edge of the coastline and a small number in the north central heart of the state

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida

Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records, photos and map.

Shown: Mozambique Tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus), non-indigenous to Florida's freshwaters
🔗 Info & browse:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

Terraced rice paddies cascade down a steep hillside. The paddies are filled with water, creating a layered, reflective pattern. Some paddies are green with growing rice, while others are brown or reddish-brown. Sparse trees dot the landscape both along the terraces and at the base of the hill.

Rice fueled many of the earliest civilizations and remains an indispensable source of food in the modern world.

That might be about to change.

Scientists warn that after 9,000 years of cultivation, rice has reached its thermal limit: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afte...

Photo: Jialiang Gao

a large snake with black and brown bands on its scaly is curled defensively among small plants in pine needle leaf litter with its head up and its tongue flicking out curiously

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

Featured: Southern Watersnake (Nerodia fasciata)
Snake profile:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-snak...
NON-VENOMOUS

a blue bird with a strong beak is perched in the V of a twig covered in tiny green leaves and is looking out over a sunny meadow out of focus in the distance

Museum Resource 🎶🐦 Florida Bird Sounds
Learn to ID Florida’s birds by their calls! Our online guide has audio samples of birds like vireos, warblers, owls, herons and the iconic Florida Scrub Jay.
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/birds/florid...

Bonus: listen to the now-extinct Dusky Seaside Sparrow

an old vintage illustration by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in traditional block print style shows several people working in a rice field and another carrying rice away against a minimalist landscape

eight maps of Asia that progress from nine to one thousand years ago showing dots at first only in China and then growing clusters in China and India and then Thailand then more through the region including Vietnam and Indonesia

Scientists warn that over the next 50 years, global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases will accelerate to a pace that is 5,000 times faster than cultivated rice has ever had to contend with.

Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afte...

Study: doi.org/10.1038/s432...

a half dozen elongated fish specimens have light ribbing down their bodies and long, thin snouts, similar to seahorses that are laid out straight

a screenshot showing search criteria fields down the left side of a map of Florida with red pins clustered heavily around the coastlines

Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida

Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including our collection records, photos and map.
Shown: Gulf Pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli), a marine invader to Florida's freshwaters
🔗 Info & browse:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fis...

there are six stems with oval leaves alternating on either side of them down their lengths all pressed and dried and attached to a white paper that has many stamps and labels with identifying information from a scientific collection

Online Exhibit 🌿 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating

Feature: Rugel’s Pawpaw (Deeringothamnus rugelii)

Our oldest Herbarium specimens were collected by Ferdinand Rugel and document Florida flora in the 1840s -- and much more.

🎧 Story & more with Mark Whitten: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

a small green frog with bulbus blue eyes is sitting on a white background looking somewhat anxious

A group of people in boots are posing for a photo in a wet, grassy field against a low forest

a group of people are seated around a table on a patio with a clutter of trays and bottles and other equipment between them as if this is an impromptu lab for fieldwork

African frogs haven’t forgotten the ice ages. 🐸🧊 A new study shows ancient forest refugia in Central Africa align with the modern diversity of frogs.

Story: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/afri...

Study: doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

Highly and casually active citizen scientists contribute equally valuable data T he word “nemotia”1 is a neologism, a newly coined term that, in this case, describes the sense of overwhelm and disconnect accompanying the thought that nothing you do will ever make a difference. ...

A new study on iNaturalist users: Highly and casually active citizen scientists contribute equally valuable data
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high...

a tiny blue black butterfly with a shocking red abdomen is at rest on waxy green leaves

a large pink bird with a spoon shaped bill is wading in dark water

a wilted looking pale mushroom is growing on the side of rough tree bark

City Nature Challenge 🌎 April 24–27, 2026
Are you participating this year? The worldwide collaboration to share nature observations to the iNaturalist app helps researchers understand species populations, habitat biodiversity or seasonal variations. Details:
www.citynaturechallenge.org

Five Facts: Wisteria in Florida Wisteria has become somewhat iconic in lush gardens in the Southeastern United States. In the spring, it’s easy to locate as the flowers bloom in fragrant clusters of light purple to white along roads...

Wisteria has become somewhat iconic in lush gardens in the Southeastern United States, but many plants you see are invasive in Florida. 🌿 There is a native species -- American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens)!

Five Facts: Wisteria in Florida
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/five...

a small brown bird is paused at the mouth of a nest made of brown leaves and grasses and surrounded by ferns. it has a green insect in its mouth and in the nest is a baby bird with its bright yellow beak open

“I realized we actually didn’t know how the whole ecosystem worked at all,” said Felicity Newell.

A new study of the breeding seasons of tropical birds shows nearby communities can breed in opposite seasons in response to rainfall & resources.

🦗 Story:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/stud...

Clear as mud: The origins of early pottery in the Lucayan Islands In our last “Talking Taino” we described a variety of ways that meals were prepared without clay pots. The invention of pottery vessels led to widespread sharing of the technology and almost universal...

Pottery has been made all over the world for thousands of years, independently invented in multiple places. The first people inhabiting the Turks & Caicos Islands faced a number of technological challenges.
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/clea...

a large insect like a praying mantis is on a log and the same brown gray and green of the bark of the log

close up of a soft peach colored flower and several closed buds with the rest of the plant out of focus in the distance

there are three frog tucked into the opening of a white tube with sunny greenery out of focus in the background

“There’s often this idea that we want everyone to be as highly active as possible and collect the most amount of data,” Erin Grady said. “Every type of observation and way of observing counts, which sounds cheesy, but it’s true.”

Story + study:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high...

a digital scan shows the skull from the front of some kind of fish with its skeleton and hard tissue illuminated in dark blue and some spines and its wide jaws with rows of very pointed teeth picked out in greens and yellows against a black background

#MondayMood 🐠 Museum technology is shifting how specimens are processed, providing more accessibility for research, education, outreach and collaboration. Explore our online exhibit:

Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onl...

American Association for the Advancement of Science names 10 UF faculty fellows The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has named 10 University of Florida facul...

Nine additional @ufl.edu researchers and experts were chosen as 2025 @aaas.org fellows: news.ufl.edu/2026/03/aaas...

headshot of a man with short hair and short beard stubble wearing a simple dark blue t-shirt against a green background like out of focus trees

Congratulations! 👏👏👏 Michal Kowalewski has been selected as a 2025 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science! Michal is the Thompson chair of invertebrate paleontology here at the Florida Museum.

Read: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/mich...

@er1ngrady.bsky.social @batsonthemove.bsky.social @coreytcallaghan.bsky.social

there is a very dark blue bird with a thin beak sitting hunched up on the edge of a muddy pond among thin branches

a cluster of dozens of tiny bright pink eggs of an insect or amphibian of some kind are stuck to the under side of a woody green reed among waxy leaves

several delicate crepe white mushroom caps on flimsy pale stems are standing weakly from mulch in a gloomy shadow

Citizen science contributions from both casual observers and highly active users can be equally valuable and even complement each other, says a new study of iNaturalist data.

Story:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/high...

Study:
theoryandpractice.citizenscienceassociation.org/articles/10....

Three similar snail shells are lined up and photo'ed in black and white to show the light grid texture on the surface of their steeply pointed cone shapes

There are four very simple line drawings of what could be mouths of small animals with arrows pointing at parts of each labeled basocones

two snail shells are drawn in simple lines and stippling to show their roughly textured swirled cones and curved lip openings, with the one on the right being shorter and braider while the left has a more elongated cone

Museum Resource 🐚 #MolluskMonday
Who doesn't love a dichotomous key? The aquatic snail fauna of the southeastern United States has long been recognized for its richness and diversity. Check out our 👇

Freshwater Snails of Florida ID Guide:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/iz/resources...

there is a large brownish-green frog sitting in profile on a mossy log with grasses and leaves against a green bog in the distance

March 20 🐸 World Frog Day!

Learn to ID Florida's frogs by their calls with our online guide 🐸🎶 Florida Frog Calls:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-her...

Also:
March 24 📌 Science on Tap: Ribbit & Sip It
Frogs + beer + herpetologist Dave Blackburn! Info:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/event/scienc...

Scientists lay out what we do and don’t yet know about moths and butterflies Key points Scientists have published a broad review of what they’ve learned about moths and butterflies over the last few decades. Special attention is given to pivotal moments during the ~300 mi...

The evolutionary path that brought us to butterflies is intriguing. Moths originated 300 million years ago and diversified with a little help from a fungus and bacterium. Then...

Scientists lay out what we do & don’t yet know about moths and butterflies: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

Taxonomic Research at the McGuire Center Taxonomy is the science of naming, describing, and classifying plants, animals, fungi, and microbes based on shared characteristics such as morphology, genetics, and behavior. Today, March 19th, is Ta...

Apparently, today is Taxonomist Appreciation Day, which has been celebrated (albeit quietly) annually on March 19th. Here are some recent taxonomic works published by the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity @floridamuseum.bsky.social recently:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/mcguire/news...

a group of people are posing for a picture in a library or workroom of some kind and all are pointing dramatically at a piece of preserved palm frond pressed to a piece of paper on the table in front of them

#ICYMI 👏👏👏 Our Herbarium recently accessioned their 300,000th vascular plant specimen into the collection! Founded in 1891, the University of Florida Herbarium (FLAS) here at the Florida Museum houses over 530,000 preserved plant specimens. More:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/...

Scientists trace ancient bird flight paths using modern plant diversity Key points  The Massif de la Hotte is a young, exceptionally biodiverse mountain range in southern Haiti that is home to an unusually large number of species that grow there and nowhere else. Sci...

Because their seeds are primarily dispersed by birds, a melastome species jumping from one island to another points to a bird making the journey, too.

Mapping the results reveal ancient flight paths that fan out in all directions across the Caribbean.
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/scie...

five very long objects are lined up that look like thin, twisted twigs but seem to have a hole at the end as if a creature lives in them

Online Exhibit 🪱 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating

Feature: Giant Seep Worms (Lamellibrachia luymesi)

Giant Seep Worms can have very long life spans, growing to 2 meters long over 170 to 250 years.

🎧 Story and more with Jenna Moore: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

on the left is a painting of an underwater scene with a large shark in the upper middle flanked by fishes on one side and a manatee on the other. In the foreground is a large coral and many large sea snails. On he right is an illustrated key to the painting showing plain outlined sharks and fishes with numbers where they would appear which matches the list on the social post text

Exhibit Spotlight 🎨 Florida Oligocene
#SciArt in our Florida Fossils exhibit helps to illustrate Florida's evolving ecosystems, bringing life to the fossils we display in exhibits.
🗝️ Check out the art and key + fossils from our collections: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blo...

two views of a small lizard or crocodile specimen that is curled up tightly with one view showing just its skeleton and the other view has some of its osteoderms or body plates on its body

some kind of rodent like mammal has been scanned to show its skeleton in pale gray and its hair and soft tissue is a ghost like dark blue floating around that

the head of some kind of lizard is digitized to show its skull and teeth as well as some soft tissue in its jaw and neck under its textured, dome-shaped scales highlighted in soft blue

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:
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/digital-lab/...

Fossils may not tell the complete story of early humans. Mosquitoes could fill in the gaps | CNN New research that decoded the evolution of mosquitoes’ feeding habits from DNA could shed light on the murky timeline of prehistoric human ancestors.

Scientist Spotted 🦟 Our interim director David Reed talked to CNN for an article about how studying the DNA of pests like mosquitoes - and in David's research, head lice - can help us map the timeline and locations prehistoric humans:
www.cnn.com/2026/03/11/s...

a view from inside a car looking out the open hatchback truck at two people standing on a dirt road and carefully holding something small in their four combined hands. There are several butterfly nets in view and a jumble of plastic vials and trays with small tools and papers in the bed of the trunk

a tiny triangular yellow butterfly with a fluffy head is at rest on the round black bud of a flower with long green grasses out of focus in the background

an excited looking person is standing at the end of a plastic grate covered table which has rows of tall grass plants in pots enclosed in individual tubular net canopies on it

The arogos skipper is an endangered butterfly that was once common throughout much of the U.S. but is now reduced to a few small populations.

Researchers are studying a population in Florida to learn more about its life cycle and conservation needs.
www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/chas...