The
Florida Museum of Natural History is the State of Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum. Its main facilities are located on the campus of the
University of FloridaThe University of Florida is a public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant major research university located on a campus located in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States. The university traces its origins to 1853, and has continuously operated on its present Gainesville campus since the fall...
in
GainesvilleGainesville is a city in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It is the the county seat and the largest city in Alachua County. Gainesville is also home to the University of Florida, which is the largest university in the State University System of Florida and the third-largest university in...
,
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
.
The main public exhibit facility, Powell Hall and the attached Maguire Center, are located in the Cultural Plaza, which it shares with the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art and the
Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing ArtsThe Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts theatre in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is located on the western side of the University of Florida campus. This facility presents the some of the most established and emerging national and international artists...
. The main research facility and former public exhibits building, Dickinson Hall, is located on the east side of campus at the corner of Museum Road and Newell Drive.
Powell Hall's permanent public exhibits focus on the flora, fauna, fossils and historic peoples of the state
FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
. The museum does not charge for admission to most exhibits; the exceptions are the Butterfly
Rainforest and certain traveling exhibits.
The museum was founded in 1891 and relocated to the campus of the University of Florida in 1906 and was chartered as the state's official
natural history museumThe Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
by the Florida Legislature in 1917. Formerly known as the
Florida State Museum, the name was changed in 1988 to more accurately reflect the museum's mission and help avoid confusion with
Florida State UniversityFlorida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
, which is located in Tallahassee.
Mission Statement
The Florida Museum of Natural History is Florida's state museum of natural history, dedicated to understanding, preserving and interpreting biological diversity and cultural heritage.
Enabling Legislation
The role of the Florida Museum of Natural History as the official natural history museum for the State of Florida is defined by Florida Statute §1004.56 which states:
"The functions of the Florida Museum of Natural History, located at the University of Florida, are to make scientific investigations toward the sustained development of natural resources and a greater appreciation of human cultural heritage, including, but not limited to, biological surveys, ecological studies, environmental impact assessments, in-depth archaeological research, and ethnological analyzes, and to collect and maintain a depository of biological, archaeological, and ethnographic specimens and materials in sufficient numbers and quantities to provide within the state and region a base for research on the variety, evolution, and conservation of wild species; the composition, distribution, importance, and functioning of natural ecosystems; and the distribution of prehistoric and historic archaeological sites and an understanding of the aboriginal and early European cultures that occupied them.
State institutions, departments, and agencies may deposit type collections from archaeological sites in the museum, and it shall be the duty of each state institution, department, and agency to cooperate by depositing in the museum voucher and type biological specimens collected as part of the normal research and monitoring duties of its staff and to transfer to the museum those biological specimens and collections in its possession but not actively being curated or used in the research or teaching of that institution, department, or agency.
The Florida Museum of Natural History is empowered to accept, preserve, maintain, or dispose of these specimens and materials in a manner which makes each collection and its accompanying data available for research and use to the staff of the museum and by cooperating institutions, departments, agencies, and qualified independent researchers.
The biological, archaeological, and ethnographic collections shall belong to the state with the title vested in the Florida Museum of Natural History...In collecting or otherwise acquiring these collections, the Florida Museum of Natural History, except as provided in s. 267.12(3) shall comply with pertinent state wildlife, archaeological, and agricultural laws and rules.
However, all collecting, quarantine, and accreditation permits issued by other institutions, departments, and agencies shall be granted routinely for said museum research study or collecting effort on state lands or within state jurisdiction which does not pose a significant threat to the survival of endangered wild species, habitats, or ecosystems.
In addition, the museum shall develop exhibitions and conduct programs which illustrate, interpret, and explain the natural history of the state and region and shall maintain a library of publications pertaining to the work as herein provided.
The exhibitions, collections, and library of the museum shall be open, free to the public, under suitable rules to be promulgated by the director of the museum and approved by the University of Florida."
Current Facilities
In the over 100 years of operation the Florida Museum of Natural History has been housed in several buildings, from the Seagle Building in downtown
GainesvilleGainesville is a city in Alachua County, Florida, United States. It is the the county seat and the largest city in Alachua County. Gainesville is also home to the University of Florida, which is the largest university in the State University System of Florida and the third-largest university in...
, to the three halls on-campus and one off-site research facility.
Dickinson Hall
Dickinson Hall, opened in 1971, is located on Museum Road. It currently houses over 25 million objects and artifacts in its collections, which include
ichthyologyIchthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...
,
paleontologyPaleontology
[from Greek: παλαιός "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought"] is the study of prehistoric life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
(both vertebrate and invertebrate),
botanyBotany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
, paleoboatany and
palynologyPalynology is the science that studies contemporary and fossil palynomorphs, including pollen, spores, orbicules, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, chitinozoans and scolecodonts, together with particulate organic matter and kerogen found in sedimentary rocks and sediments...
,
herpetologyHerpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and of reptiles .Herpetology is concerned with poikilothermic,...
,
malacologyMalacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology which deals with the study of mollusca , the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods...
,
mammalogyIn zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous systems...
,
ornithologyOrnithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
,
environmental archaeologyEnvironmental archaeology is the study of the long-term relationship between humans and their environments. Various sub-disciplines are involved to document and interpret this relationship, including paleoethnobotany, geomorphology, palynology, geophysics, landscape archaeology, human biology and...
,
historical archaeologyHistorical archaeology is a branch of archaeology that concerns itself with "historical" societies, i.e. those that had systems of writing. It is often distinguished from prehistoric archaeology which studies societies with no writing...
, archeology of the Caribbean and Florida, and the
ethnographyEthnography is a branch of anthropology. It is a methodological strategy used to provide descriptions of human societies, which as a methodology does not prescribe any particular method , but instead prescribes the nature of the study Ethnography (Greek ethnos = folk/people and graphein =...
of Latin and North Americas. It also houses a state of the art Molecular Systematics and Evolutionary Genetics lab.
Powell Hall
Located in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza, Powell Hall was constructed in 1995 at the corner of Hull Road near S.W. 34th Street, approximately two miles west of Dickinson Hall. It serves, along with the connected Maguire Center, as the main exhibits and public programs facility. Powell Hall was partially funded from a gift of $3 million from two University of Florida alumni couples; Bob and Ann and Steve and Carol Powell of Fort Lauderdale, and with matching funds from the
National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency of the United States established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. The NEH is located at...
and from the Florida state government.
Randell Research Center
In 1996, the Randell family gifted of a , internationally significant Pineland Site Complex in Lee County to the University of Florida, which the museum now operates as the Randell Research Center. This research and education program is an extension of the Museum's Southwest Florida Project and "Year of the Indian" archeology/education project.
In 2008 the Randell Research Center completed a two-year program to plant more than 800 native trees that replace ones destroyed in the 2004 Hurricanes Charley and Frances.
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity
A $4.2 million gift was received from William and Nadine McGuire of Wayzata, Minnesota in 2000 to establish the
William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. This gift was one of the largest private gifts ever given to foster research on insects and was matched from the State of Florida Alec Courtelis Facilities Enhancement Challenge Grant Program . The McGuires later gave another $3 million to fund final construction of the center. This new $12 million facility for
LepidopteraLepidoptera is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
research and public exhibits opened in August 2004.
The center houses a collection of more than six million butterfly and moth specimens, making it one of the largest collections of
LepidopteraLepidoptera is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
in the world, rivaling that of the
Natural History MuseumThe Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The collection includes extinct species. It started with around four million specimens, with space for significant further expansion. The collection brings together those from the Allyn Museum in Sarasota, other University of Florida collections, and the State of Florida's Division of Plant Industry collections.
The McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity serves both research and public education functions. The center includes the living Butterfly Rainforest and exhibit space that features information about Lepidoptera and rainforests worldwide, as well as of research laboratories and collection space.
The research space includes laboratories focusing on molecular genetics, scanning electron microscopy, image analysis, conservation and captive propagation of endangered species, optical microscopy and specimen preparation, as well as classrooms and offices for 12 faculty curators, collection managers and other staff.
Some of the research laboratories and collection can be viewed through glass panels at the back of the museum. The center has around of space for its facilities in total.
Butterfly Rainforest
The
Butterfly Rainforest is a display of live
butterfliesA butterfly zoo, or butterfly house, is a zoo which is specifically intended for the breeding and display of butterflies. Some butterfly houses also feature other insects, spiders, scorpions, etc.- History :...
in a large, outdoor enclosed space attached to the museum. It is the main exhibit in the McGuire Center which is accessed from the main entrance of Powell Hall. The butterflies are brought from around the world as chrysalises and then hatched at the museum. The butterfly exhibit is currently the only permanent exhibit that requires an entrance fee.
Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life & Land
Located in Powell Hall, the $2.5 million, exhibit describes the history of the Florida Platform through five geologic time periods. The exhibition takes visitors on a walk through time beginning in the
EoceneThe Eocene epoch, lasting from 55.8 ± 0.2 to 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch. The start of the...
epoch, when Florida was underwater. Visitors travel through the
EoceneThe Eocene epoch, lasting from 55.8 ± 0.2 to 33.9 ± 0.1 Ma , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene epoch. The start of the...
,
OligoceneThe Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are slightly...
,
MioceneThe Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the...
,
PlioceneThe Pliocene epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 2.588 million years before present....
and
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
epochs and see Florida's first land animals, evolving grasslands and savannahs and the land bridge between North and South America that formed about 3 million years ago. The exhibit ends with the arrival of the first humans in Florida near the end of the Pleistocene.
Over 90 percent of the exhibit's 500 fossils are real, and many were found within of Gainesville.
The entrance to the hall showcases six fossil
sharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago, before the time of the dinosaurs....
jaws, ranging in height from 2-9 feet. The exhibition begins with five extinction events described in dioramas that lead visitors onto the Florida Platform at about 65 million years ago, also known as the Dawn of the Age of Mammals. Displays include a primitive-toothed whale in the Eocene, a pig-like, extinct mammal from the Oligocene, a Miocene
rhinocerosRhinoceros , often colloquially abbreviated rhino, is a name used to group five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. Three of the five species—the Javan, Sumatran and Black Rhinoceros—are...
being attacked by two saber-toothed, cat-like animals, a -tall sloth standing on its hind legs in the Pliocene area and a 500,000-year-old
jaguarThe Jaguar, Panthera onca, is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus. It is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest and most powerful feline in the Western Hemisphere...
chasing a peccary from the Pleistocene epoch. The time periods also include artwork by paleoartists from around the world, including a -tall steel sculpture of an extinct Terror Bird, Titanis walleri.
Charles Knight Collection
Since April 21, 2007, the Florida Museum has displayed seven study paintings and a self-portrait by renowned paleo-artist
Charles R. KnightCharles Robert Knight was an American artist best known for his influential paintings of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals...
(1874-1953) in the Hall of Florida Fossils. Knight completed the paintings, on loan from his granddaughter Rhoda Knight Kalt of New York, nearly a century ago as studies for some of his famous large murals. They include many animals that once lived in Florida, and Knight visited the state many times throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Knight was a master of the depiction of nature and a pioneer in the art of "re-animating" long-extinct and unfamiliar animals. More than any other artist, he has framed our views of life in the distant past. Knight's murals depicting ancient life grace the halls of America's greatest natural history museums, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Field Museum in Chicago.
South Florida People & Environments
This exhibit, is also in Powell Hall, the South Florida Hall consists of ten exhibit galleries that occupy a total of . The sequence of galleries is designed to give visitors a variety of experiences, including 3-D immersion environments and more focused learning centers.
Visitors enter the exhibit through a re-created scene of a
CalusaThe Calusa were a Native American group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. At the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture. Calusa territory reached from Charlotte Harbor to Cape Sable, and may have included...
fishing village as it may have looked about 500 years ago. A young Calusa boy carries home a shark on his shoulder, and behind him lies the village and view toward the
Gulf of MexicoThe Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United...
. Just past the village are four large glass wall panels depicting southwest Florida Indian art and environments. These images suggest the richness and complexity of both the cultural and natural history of the region. Beyond the panels is an orientation area, large enough for docents and teachers to gather a small group and introduce the exhibit. Interpretive panels preview the content and themes of the hall, augmented by a collage mural
of south Florida people and environments.
Mangrove Boardwalk Gallery
Visitors walk onto a wooden boardwalk into a full-scale re-creation of a southwest Florida
mangroveMangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S. The saline conditions tolerated by various species range from brackish water, through pure seawater , to water of over twice the salinity of ocean seawater,...
forest and sea grass estuary. The boardwalk passes through mangrove trees, mudflats, and simulated water. Insect, bird, and water sounds combine with slow changes in lighting to capture the feeling of the environment. A huge 360-degree mural painting extends the view to distant barrier islands, bird rookeries, an upland area, and the heart of mangrove forests. Interpretive panels introduce the critical stories of the rich estuarine environment.
Natural Habitats Center
This gallery features detailed and specimen-rich exhibits about the environments of South Florida. Learn about the organisms that live in the estuary at the child's interactive wall, a hands-on relief sculpture of the estuary in cross-section, which includes drawers containing natural science specimens. Watch images of underwater life in the estuary on large-format video screens. Explore the biology of estuarine organisms with touch-screen multimedia interactives. Find out about other environments of South Florida, including coral reefs, dunes, the Everglades, pine forests, and tropical hammocks.
Underwater Walk-Through
Imagine yourself the size of a small fish, and you can imagine this gallery, which features a 12-times life-size underwater scene to explore the tiny organisms that sustain the estuary. Large sculptures of plants, fish, and invertebrates surround the walkway, and shimmering underwater light adds a sense of reality to the scene. Our goal in this immersion experience is to demonstrate the tremendous diversity of this environment and to bring to life the critical array of tiny organisms that sustain the ecosystem at the base of the food web.
Fishing Heritage Gallery
The Fishing Heritage Gallery tells the story of 6,000 years of fishing. This artifact-rich gallery highlights 6,000 years of fishing along Florida's Gulf coast. Displays focus on the fishing industry of the
CalusaThe Calusa were a Native American group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. At the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture. Calusa territory reached from Charlotte Harbor to Cape Sable, and may have included...
, their predecessors, and traditions that carried into the 20th century. We explore the significance of maritime adaptation as a basis for social and political complexity. Included are topics such as fish, nets, native and post-contact fishing techniques, watercraft, and waterworks. Visitors will learn about the remarkable engineering endeavors of the Calusa, who constructed large canals across southwest Florida; and the long-lived net-fishing tradition. Interactive multimedia stations illustrate topics such as net making and cordage manufacture, and a miniature diorama of a fishing village captures the essence of Calusa fishing. Artifacts include 1,000-year-old palm-fiber fishing nets, Calusa net-making tools, a wide range of shell tools, and an ancient wooden canoe paddle.
Calusa Mound and Village
The dominant feature of this gallery is a large picture window and view of an outdoor mound. Sculptures of a Calusa family stand on the mound next to a palm-thatched house, suggesting that the visitor is looking outside and into the past. Inside, interpretive panels discuss mounds and Calusa town plans. Next to the window, an interactive model shows a cutaway view of a mound and explains archaeologists' methods of interpreting the past.
Calusa Leader's House
This gallery showcases the amazing society of the Calusa through a dramatic re-created scene. Visitors enter a palm-thatched building and find themselves in a Calusa leader's house during a political ceremony. Subdued lights and sounds of singing add drama to a scene of six human sculptures, based on known individuals from historic Spanish documents. The setting is the Calusa capital town of Calos, about the year 1564. A distant chief is visiting the Calusa leader and his close associates. Interpretive panels explain topics such as Calusa politics, social organization, and spiritual beliefs. Artifacts from the Museum's collections complement the stories and include shell, bone, and metal ornaments as well as objects traded to the Calusa from places as far away as
MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
.
South Florida's Native American Legacy Gallery
The Legacy Gallery presents some of the most rare and interesting objects in our South Florida collections. These include a 1,000-year-old hand-carved wooden panel with a painting of the near-extinct
ivory-billed woodpeckerThe Ivory-billed Woodpecker is one of several species whose numbers have dwindled to the point where it is uncertain whether any remain. The species is listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature...
, a wooden panel with a painted
alligatorAn Alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. The name alligator is an anglicized form of el lagarto the Spanish term for "lizard", the name by which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator...
, wooden figurines of animals and humans, ornaments made from precious metals, and numerous other carved wooden and bone objects. Interpretive panels discuss South Florida sites of special significance, including the remarkable "wet sites" that can yield detailed information when excavated with care and when recovered objects are appropriately treated. A multimedia interactive further explains the process of properly preserving and caring for wet-site materials.
Today's South Florida Indian People
This gallery is devoted to the Indian people who live in South Florida today: the
SeminoleThe Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation was formed in the 18th century in a process of ethnogenesis...
and
MiccosukeeThe Miccosukee are a Native American tribe living in Florida. They are descendants of the Lower Chiaha, a Muskogee Creek tribe and have had centuries of relations with the Seminole but maintain a separate identity today, largely on linguistic grounds. Unlike the Creek-speaking Seminole, they speak...
. Interpretive panels address their history and their vibrant living traditions. Display cases feature many of the interesting objects from our collections, including patchwork clothing, woodwork, basketry, silverwork, and artifacts from early Seminole sites.
Northwest Florida: Waterways & Wildlife
As visitors move through this exhibit, they will experience a journey through different habitats as if they were traveling westward in the Florida panhandle. When visitors enter Northwest Florida, they are immersed in a hammock forest with a dramatic, highly detailed, -high wrap-around mural. There are more than 50 different plants and animals for visitors to locate in this environment, from high in the trees to under logs on the forest floor.
The cave, a continuing exhibit from Dickinson Hall, is a signature part of this exhibition and the visitor experiences what it is like to be inside a northwest Florida cave. The cave is modeled after one found in Marianna Caverns State Park. While exploring the cave, visitors will learn about minerals, hydrology, cave life and the fossils found in its limestone layers.
Upon exiting the cave, the visitor enters a pitcher plant bog that was modeled after bog communities around
Eglin Air Force BaseEglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. It was named in honor of World War I aviator and test pilot Lt Col Frederick Irving Eglin...
. Seepage bogs are characterized by saturated, highly acidic, sandy soil and are dominated by low growing plant species, such as grasses and carnivorous plants. Proceeding past the diorama, visitors experience a change in scale where they encounter larger-than-life pitcher plants.
The river scene travels 700 years back in time along the banks of the
Apalachicola RiverThe Apalachicola River is a river, approximately 112 mi long in the U.S. state Florida. The river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin for short, drains an area of approximately into the Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its farthest headstream in northwest Georgia is approximately...
. As visitors move off of a boardwalk onto a simulated dirt path, they are surrounded by a 360-degree wraparound forest mural and a Native American trading scene from ca. 1300 A.D. Northwest Florida was once a major political and cultural crossroads, and Indian nations lived in large settlements along rivers. This exchange is between peoples of the Fort Walton culture and the
EtowahEtowahis a Muskogee word for 'town'/'people'/'tribe',and may also refer to:Places in the United States:* The Etowah River in Georgia* Etowah, Arkansas* Etowah, North Carolina* Etowah, Oklahoma* Etowah, Tennessee...
. Northwest Florida rivers are filled with fossilized remains of now-extinct vertebrate animal species, and examples of these are featured along with many archaeological and ethnographic artifacts from the museum's collections.
Expanses of salt-tolerant grasses and winding creeks give marshes an open, distinctive look. However, life in coastal marshes is challenging because changing tides constantly alter water and salinity levels. Few plant and animal species are adapted to this habitat. Visitors will discover why the tidal marsh is an important ecosystem and learn about the specialized adaptations needed to survive them.
A coastal diorama depicts dune habitats from the barrier islands from
Panama CityPanama City is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a population of 813,097, with a total metro population of 1,206,792, and it is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, at...
to
PensacolaPensacola is the name of several cities as well as other things:* Pensacola , a group of Native Americans* A number of places in the U.S...
. An
ospreyThe Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching 60 centimetres in length with a 1.8 metre wingspan...
in flight, bird nests from the museum's collections, a cross-section of a
sea turtleSea Turtles inhabit all the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:The superfamily Chelonioidea has a worldwide distribution; sea turtles can be found in all oceans except for the polar regions. Some species travel between oceans...
nest and coastal water sounds enhance the visitor experience. Just before exiting Northwest Florida, the visitor encounters a floor to ceiling curved lagoon case depicting how different sessile intertidal species stratify their habitats in the tidal zone. Jars with preserved specimens from the
IchthyologyIchthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...
collection demonstrate the diversity of bony fishes from this habitat.
Florida Wildflower and Butterfly Garden
Located next to the west side of the McGuire Center, the garden beckons visitors to imagine how they could transform their yards into an inviting and colorful, yet practical and water-saving, mecca for butterflies and other wildlife.
The Florida Wildflower Council appropriated funds from the
Florida wildflower license tag revenue for the garden, an accompanying brochure and a wildflower and butterfly display in the Florida Museum of Natural History. The display shows the life cycles of four butterflies and depicts how the plants they use change in appearance over the four seasons.
Changing Gallery
The Changing Gallery is hall, also located in Powell Hall, which has hosted the Megaladon Exhibit, Hatching the Past, Chocolate, Tibet Exhibit and Sue the
Tyrannosaurus rexTyrannosaurus was a genus of theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other tyrannosaurids...
and Inside Africa, both from the Field Museum in Chicago, Il.
Upcoming exhibits include Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body, Quilting Natural Florida II, CSI: Crime Scene Insects, Everglades and the Amazon.
Research Collections
With the exception of the Lepidoptera collection, located in the McGuire Center, almost all other research collections are located in Dickinson Hall.
Lepidoptera
This collection, unlike the rest of the museum’s collections, is housed at the Maguire Center. This department is relatively new when compared to the other collections and departments although their research is quite extensive.
Conservation of Homerus - Largest Swallowtail of the Americas
The endangered Homerus Swallowtail, once common in Jamaica, is struggling to recover with the aid of forest conservation efforts. This large (over wide) endangered butterfly (Papilio homerus) once inhabited 7 of the 13 parishes of
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
and was relatively common in the 1930s. Today it occurs only in two parishes where the Blue Mountains meet the John Crow Range in eastern Jamaica and in isolated places in Cockpit County of western Jamaica. Homerus larvae require humidity close to 100% and inhabit wet limestone forests and lower Montane Rainforest. Destruction of these forests led to decline of the species.
Despite existing logging prohibitions, in 1979 a government-sponsored company began cutting 2,000 hectares of rainforest a year to plant
Caribbean pineThe Caribbean Pine is a hard pine native to Central America, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. It inhabits tropical and subtropical coniferous forests, which include both lowland savannas and montane forests...
. A 1984 film about the vanishing swallowtail prompted new research and conservation efforts. In 1991, Jamaica established a new national park around remaining swallowtail habitat after Hurricane Gilbert destroyed most planted Caribbean pines. This allowed natural vegetation to re-establish the rainforest, and the butterfly's host plants rapidly returned.
In the 1980s, UF scientists began studying Homerus Swallowtail ecology with University of the West Indies lepidopterists. Thomas C. Emmel and Jaret C. Daniels later helped establish captive breeding and educational programs in Jamaica to help local conservation efforts. This led to the establishment of John Crow-Blue Mountain National Park, which uses the Homerus Swallowtail as its flagship symbol.
The Miami Blue Project
The
Miami blueThe Miami blue is a small butterfly native to coastal areas of southern Florida. Once very common throughout its range, it has become critically endangered, and may be the rarest insect in the United States...
(
Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri) is a small, brightly colored
butterflyA butterfly is an insect of the order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form. Most species are day-flying so...
that lives only in Florida. Primarily a coastal species, the Miami blue inhabits tropical hardwood hammocks, beachside scrub and pine rocklands. Its larvae feed mostly on the native Balloon Vine (
CardiospermumCardiospermum is a genus of approximately 12 species in the family Sapindaceae. Flowering varieties in this genus are commonly known as: balloon vine, love in a puff, heartseed, or heartseed vine...
corindum) and Gray Nickerbean (
CaesalpiniaCaesalpinia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. Membership within the genus is controversial, with different publications including anywhere from 70 to 165 species, depending largely on the inclusion or exclusion of species alternately listed under genera such as...
bonduc). Development in coastal areas eliminated the Miami blue from the south Florida mainland. This alarming decline continued in the Florida Keys. After disappearing for seven years, the species was rediscovered on
Bahia Honda KeyBahia Honda , is an island in the lower Florida Keys.U.S...
. Current threats to the remaining tiny population include adult mosquito control spraying, which kills larvae feeding on sprayed host plants.
In 2002, approximately 50 adult butterflies were flying in Bahia Honda State Park. The same year, scientists established a captive breeding population in Gainesville. The first reintroduction of this species occurred in May 2004 in
Everglades National ParkEverglades National Park is a national park in the U.S. state of Florida. The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, it contains the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades marshland region of southwestern Florida...
, and other sites will receive reintroductions after suitable habitats are identified.
The Florida Museum has established a captive breeding population and are reintroducing the Blues into conservation areas such as Everglades and
Biscayne National ParkBiscayne National Park is a U.S. National Park located in southern Florida, due east of Homestead. The park preserves Biscayne Bay, one of the top scuba diving areas in the United States. Ninety-five percent of the park is water. In addition, the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive...
s. The goal is to increase population numbers in the wild and expand the range of this butterfly from one small remnant colony on Bahia Honda Key to historically occupied areas.
Schaus Swallowtail Project
The rare Schaus' Swallowtail (Heraclides aristodemus ponceanus Schaus) lives on
Elliott KeyElliott Key is the northernmost of the true Florida Keys , and the largest key north of Key Largo. It is located entirely within Biscayne National Park, in Miami-Dade County, Florida, east of Homestead, Florida, at coordinates...
, one of the few places in south Florida where there is no spraying for mosquito control. Once widespread in south Florida, its population size and distribution were reduced by urbanization of Miami and the Keys, and later by mosquito control spraying with pesticides Dibrom and Baytex.
In captivity Schaus' females lay up to 430 eggs. In nature, predators eat most eggs, and wasps parasitize most larvae. But in the laboratory, researchers can raise most eggs to adults. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida and devastated Schaus' habitat on Elliott Key. This prompted a large-scale captive breeding program. The team bred over 1,500 butterflies in captivity and released them in the Keys and south Florida.
Success of the new populations is monitored every year. In spring, scientists visit Elliott Key to collect, mark, and release the butterflies. Recapture rates of marked butterflies help estimate population size. The number of individuals flying hovers at about one thousand.
St. Augustine Hairstreak and Coastal Development
The St. Augustine Hairstreak occurs only in northeast and north central Florida. Colonies are geographically isolated and very small, with only 3-40 adult butterflies normally present. The larvae feed only on Southern Red Cedar trees (Juniperus silicicola). You may see 3-4 males perched on every tree in a colony, waiting for passing females.
Ten years ago, several colonies of the St. Augustine Hairstreak (Mitoura grynea sweadneri) were known from Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Gulf Coast areas near Cedar Key. Today, colonies remain only inland west of the
St. Johns RiverThe St. Johns River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and its most significant for commercial and recreational use. At long, it winds through or borders twelve counties, three of which are the state's largest. The elevation drop from the headwaters to the mouth is less than ; like...
. The status of this butterfly east of St. Johns River is in question and the original coastal populations may no longer exist.
Coastal development has eliminated many old cedar trees, which led to the demise of this species and continues to be a threat. Also, landscapers often trim cedar tree branches, removing new growth that hosts both eggs and caterpillars. Mulching around tree bases can kill the underground pupae and suppresses wildflowers vital to adult feeding.
Akers Pence conducts field and laboratory research on the conservation biology of the St. Augustine Hairstreak. Dr. Thomas C. Emmel first brought scientific attention to the species' demise in 1987.
Butterfly-Ant Symbiosis
Many of the 6,000 species of the butterfly family
LycaenidaeThe Lycaenidae are the second-largest family of butterflies, with about 6000 species worldwide, whose members are also called gossamer-winged butterflies...
associate with ants. The complexity and beauty of such interactions in the Malaysian tropics attracted research on the subject. Lycaenid caterpillars may have special organs that attract and appease ants. Some species cannot survive without ants. For example, some lycaenid caterpillars are taken by ants into the nest and are allowed to eat ant larvae in exchange for a sweet secretion from the caterpillars. Some even evolve ant-like pheromones, so they pass as ants instead of invaders.
A Malaysian Blue caterpillar (
Anthene emolusThe Ciliate Blue is a small butterfly found in India that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.-Male:Upperside: dull purple; bases of the wings suffused with blue ; both fore and hind wings with well-marked jet-black anticiliary lines, that on the fore wing expand slightly at tho apex...
) can develop into an adult without the help of ants, but has a much greater risk of falling prey to predators and parasites. Female blues look for both host plants and Weaver Ants (
Oecophylla smaragdinaOecophylla smaragdina is a species of arboreal ant found in Asia and Australia. They make nests in trees made of leaves stitched together using the silk produced by their larvae.Weaver ants may be red or green...
), laying eggs when the ants are present. Weaver Ants, a numerous and aggressive species of ants, offer caterpillars reliable protection. The ants transport young caterpillars around host plants to help them find food. In return, they "milk" the older larvae for a sweet secretion.
Museum staff traveled to Malaysia to research ant-caterpillar association. They discovered that different ant castes play different roles in tending caterpillars, and that major ants fight minor ants for the right to tend caterpillars. This defies standard theory that ants act in unity for the common good of the ant colony.
Chemical Ecology of Heliconius
Larvae of
HeliconiusHeliconius comprise a colorful and widespread brush-footed butterfly genus distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. These butterflies utilize Passion flower plants as their larval food source and rely on bright wing color patterns to signal their distasteful to...
butterflies feed exclusively on cyanide-producing passion vines. The caterpillars of this genus have developed the ability to counteract the effects of the cyanogenic glycosides in their Passiflora host plants, but the exact mechanisms for counteracting these cyanogens are unknown. Dr. Mirian Medina Hay-Roe focuses her research on the chemical interactions of Passiflora plants and their herbivores of the genus Heliconius. The investigation approaches insect/plant co-evolution at various levels. At the morphological level, she investigates genetic variation in life history characteristics, as well as, the influence of environmental factors and maternal effects. At the physiological level, her research investigates the fate of plant secondary compounds, the patterns of toxicity exhibited by Heliconius adults fed cyanogenic glycosides as caterpillars, and the mechanisms of detoxification used by the larvae. The evolutionary implication of her research focuses on an understanding of the evolution of mimicry rings based on plant toxicity.
Mimicry Diversiry, Evolution and Ecology of Ithomiine Communities
Ithomiines dominate butterfly communities in neotropical forests, from sea level to over 2,400 m elevation. Ithomiines may comprise up to 50% of all butterflies in the forest understorey, and in many places up to 60 species fly together. Understanding how such diverse communities coexist is a central goal of evolutionary ecology, and ithomiines are an ideal study group. Ithomiine caterpillars feed almost exclusively on plants of the family
SolanaceaeThe Solanaceae is a family of flowering plants that contains a number of important agricultural plants as well as many toxic plants. The name of the family comes from the Latin Solanum "the nightshade plant", but the further etymology of that word is unclear...
, and each ithomiine species is usually confined to a single hostplant species. There is evidence of adaptive radiation, with more diverse plant clades supporting more diverse groups of ithomiines. Ithomiines are also notable for being unpalatable to predators and thus warningly colored, and extensively involved in mimicry rings. However, rather than all species converging on a single warning color pattern as predicted by mimicry theory, there are diverse complexes of mimetic species occurring together. Drs. Keith Willmott and Julia Robinson Willmott are thus working with colleagues from Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities, UK, to try to understand how mimicry diversity is maintained in two distinct ithomiine communities in eastern
EcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador , literally, "Republic of the equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America that...
.
Their hypothesis is that different mimicry complexes occur in different microhabitats, i.e. ridge tops or stream sides, where distinct predator species occur, so that predators rarely encounter more than one kind of color pattern and thus the selection for convergence of different mimicry complexes is weak. The microhabitats where butterflies occur may be constrained by the microhabitats where their food-plants grow, so they are rearing ithomiines to identify host-plant usage. They are also mapping the height and microhabitat distribution of butterflies, plants and insectivorous birds to quantify niche space for these groups. Finally, they are deriving molecular and morphological phylogenies for certain ithomiine genera to test whether adaptive shifts in warning color pattern, host-plant or microhabitat have been important in speciation.
Sound production in Heliconius butterflies
A few butterfly species have been reported to produce or hear sounds. The best-known example is the butterfly genus,
HamadryasHamadryas may refer to:* Hamadryas , the daughter of Oreios and mother of the Hamadryads in Greek mythology,* The Hamadryas Baboon, Papio hamadryas, a species of Old World monkey....
, which produces loud clicks in flight. Dr. Hay-Roe has discovered that Heliconius cydno also produces audible wing clicks during encounters with members of the same species and other Heliconius species. This finding suggests that wing clicks may play a role in intra- and interspecific communication in Heliconius. In collaboration with the USDA; Dr. Hay-Roe is trying to determine the evolutionary importance of sound production in the genus Heliconius.
Night Roosting in Heliconius Study
Communal roosting occurs when multiple insects of one or more species assemble in close proximity to one another for a certain period of time. Some species within the genus
HeliconiusHeliconius comprise a colorful and widespread brush-footed butterfly genus distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. These butterflies utilize Passion flower plants as their larval food source and rely on bright wing color patterns to signal their distasteful to...
display gregarious night roosting behavior. This particular behavior has been addressed several times over more than a century, but a explanation for it remains obscure. In order to better understand this behavior the staff is studying clustering behavior and roost structure and patterns related to individual's sex, age, and size using Heliconius butterflies. This study is done with captive-bred colonies and utilizes unique facilities of the McGuire Center.
Speciation in Heliconius
HeliconiusHeliconius comprise a colorful and widespread brush-footed butterfly genus distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the New World. These butterflies utilize Passion flower plants as their larval food source and rely on bright wing color patterns to signal their distasteful to...
comprise a colorful and widespread butterfly genus distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. These butterflies have been a subject of many studies due to their abundance and relative ease in breeding under laboratory conditions as well as due to the extensive mimicry that occurs in this group. Studying this model group is helping scientists to understand how species are formed and why they are so diverse.
The museum staff has been studying Heliconius sexual selection and speciation processes in Colombian species,
Heliconius heurippaHeliconius heurippa is a butterfly of the genus Heliconius that is believed to be a separate species from—but a hybrid of—the species Heliconius cydno and Heliconius melpomene, making H. heurippa an example of hybrid speciation....
. This species is known to have an intermediate morphology and a hybrid genome, and in the study its intermediate wing color and pattern was recreated through laboratory crosses between H. melpomene, H. cydno, and their first generation hybrids. Mate preference experiments showed that the phenotype of H. heurippa is reproductively isolates it from both parental species. There is strong assortative mating between all three species, and in H. heurippa the wing pattern and color elements derived from H. melpomene and H. cydno are both critical for mate recognition by males.
Richness and Phenology of a Moth Community in North-Central Florida
McGuire Center collections managers, Drs. George T. Austin and Andrei Sourakov, have been analyzing richness and phenology of moths fauna in North-Central Florida since January 2005. About 1,100 species were collected from a single locality outside
Paynes PrairiePaynes Prairie is a Florida State Park, encompassing a 21,000 acre savanna south of Gainesville, Florida, in Micanopy. It is also a U.S. National Natural Landmark. It is crossed by both I-75 and U.S. 441 .-History:...
near Gainesville, Florida during a twelve-month period. Many additional species have been collected in 2006. Sampling, databasing, and analyzing of nearly 14,000 specimens allowed determine seasonal fluctuations in species richness and relative abundance. Interesting patterns have been discovered and await publication.
Mexican Butterflies
With over 1,800 species of butterflies reported from the country,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
is one of the ten most butterfly-rich nations on Earth. This vast diversity is a product of Mexico's complex geography, climate, and varied botanical communities, and includes a high degree of endemicity; approximately 15% of Mexico's butterfly species are endemic to the country. For over three decades, researchers currently at the McGuire Center have been studying the Mexican butterfly fauna, in collaboration with researchers at Mexico's National Autonomous University, in Mexico City, and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, in Chetumal, Quintana Roo. This research has resulted in the discovery and description of various new species of butterflies, the compilation and publication of various state and regional lists, and has contributed a tremendous amount of new distributional information for many taxa through an ambitious databasing project.
Tropical Andean Butterfly Diversity Project
This project is an international collaboration among scientists, institutions and organizations involved in research on the butterflies of the tropical Andean region. It is a three year project funded by the United Kingdom's Darwin Initiative. The project's goals are to establish a foundation for future research on butterflies in the region. The project will provide resources, such as specimen databases, species lists and images, conduct training courses for students in Andean countries, and develop and publish a strategy for butterfly research and conservation in the tropical Andean region.
Taiwan Lepidoptera Survey
This project is on-going since 1980, with numerous survey trips to investigate the
LepidopteraLepidoptera is an order of insects that includes moths and butterflies. It is one of the most speciose orders in the class Insecta, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
biodiversity of the island of Taiwan that have taken place in more than 20 years of research. Large collections continue to be made and studied, and two dozen specialists on various families are working on family treatments, under project direction of J. B. Heppner. Publications by the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera thus far include the basic Lepidoptera of Taiwan catalog (1992), listing over 3,976 species of moths and butterflies known for
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
, and the first faunal synopsis (2007), illustrating in color about half of the species. Future series books will treat all the species in more detail.
Atlas of Neotropical Lepidoptera
The biodiversity summary project of the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera for the New World tropics, from the Mexican-USA border southwards, began in 1980. Under project director, Dr. J. B. Heppner, there have been completed thus far catalog parts for micro-moths, the smaller macro-moths, and the butterflies. Future catalogs will treat the remaining groups. Color synopses of the fauna of Neotropical moths and butterflies will be published as the numerous specialist authors complete their studies.
Lepidoptera of Chile
This biodiversity project will catalog and treat the moths and butterflies of
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, a region with a limited fauna but totally restricted and isolated from the Amazonian tropical fauna.
Lepidopterorum Catalogues
Since 1911, the Lepidopterorum Catalogues has been the premier catalog series for Lepidoptera of the world. Beginning in 1989 the series was renewed by the Association for Tropical Lepidoptera, with the completion of the world catalog for
NoctuidaeThe Noctuidae or Owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....
, with updated format and publication scheme. Since then, several other families have been completed, including the recent catalogs for Scythrididae and Andesianidae in 2007. Several specialist authors are working on other catalogs. The series now gives full citations to published names for each family, plus notes on known host-plants, figures published, distribution of each species, a bibliography of all papers on the family, and figures of representative species.
Classification of Lepidoptera
Since 1998, Dr. John Heppner has been working on revised treatment of all families of Lepidoptera, with the publication of the first part of the classification. Additional parts are in progress. Coordinated book contracts include one for a "Manual of Lepidoptera" and for "American Lepidoptera", both treatments at the family level.
Preliminary Survey of the Macrolepidopteran Moth Diversity of Big Cypress National Preserve
The primary objective of this study is to survey major moth families in four of the seven habitat types in
Big Cypress National PreserveBig Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in southern Florida, about 45 miles west of Miami. The Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, became the first national preserves in the United States National Park System when they were...
. The objectives of this project are to identify which moths species occur in each designated habitat type, establish a voucher and frozen tissue collection of the moths obtained during the survey, and develop an on-line searchable website. The website will illustrate diversity in the preserve with images of the moths and of their respective habitats. A synoptic moth collection will also be created and exhibited at Big Cypress’ visitor's center. This work will allow comparing moth diversity at Big Cypress with this in other areas in Florida. It will also allow us to evaluate efficiency of our small-scale survey techniques compared to more labor-intensive surveys of moths conducted elsewhere.
Blood-feeding and Fruit-feeding Moths of Calpini Tribe, Their Phylogeny and Classification
The noctuid moth subfamily
CalpinaeCalpinae is a subfamily of moth family Noctuidae. It is closely related to the Catocalinae; both subfamilies contain large species with wingspans larger than 5 centimetres ....
comprises approximately 360 species worldwide. Calpinae is defined by the structure of the proboscis which consists of fish hook-like barbs that are used for tearing the skin of fruits and mammals.
The tribe Calpini is cosmopolitan in its distribution. The genus Calyptra is considered to be Old World in its distribution with a high concentration of diversity in South and Southeast Asia, yet one species, C. canadensis, occurs in the northeastern United States and Canada. Genera Cecharismena, Goniapteryx, Hypsoropha, Pharga, Phyprosopus, and Psammathodoxa are mainly found in the New World, while Eudocima is found in the Old World tropics. Genus Gonodonta can be found in subtropical and tropical regions, with seven species occurring in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Species of Oraesia, Plusiodonta, and Radara are common in the Old and New World tropics.
At least five genera within the Calpini are considered to be primary piercers of both hard and soft-skinned fruits; nine species in the genus Calyptra have been recorded piercing the skin of mammals and feeding on their blood. Bänziger divides these feeding behaviors into three categories: skin piercers and blood feeders, primary fruit piercers, and secondary fruit piercers. Primary fruit piercers are able to penetrate fruit, while secondary piercers are only capable of piercing fruit damaged previously by primary piercers or other animals.
It has been hypothesized that blood-feeding behavior evolved from fruit piercing. This hypothesis has never been tested, and cannot be tested until the relationships of Calyptra and related genera are known. McGuire Center's doctoral research associate Jennifer Zaspel is working on reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships among the genera in Calpini. She also intends to determine the origin(s) of blood feeding in the genus Calyptra and if there is in fact a directional progression of feeding types in these moths.
Higher Classification of Hesperiidae
Butterflies in the family Hesperiidae, commonly known as skippers, comprise between 4,000 and 5,000 species worldwide, constituting approximately 20% of the Earth's butterfly fauna. Despite this diversity, the family has historically been under-studied, compared to the other families of butterflies, and there has been no general consensus on the definitions of or relationships between higher taxa in the family.
Recent studies on the higher classification of the family have sought to define the major genealogical lineages of the world's skippers, through combined analyses of adult morphology and DNA sequence character data.
Systematics of Genus Calisto
Butterfly species in the genus
CalistoCalisto can refer to:*Calisto , a genus of butterfly*Calisto , an old style serif typeface*La Calisto, an opera by Cavalli...
are highly successful butterflies, but are now seriously endangered due to habitat loss. Of the 103 butterfly genera on Hispaniola, the genus Calisto comprises 20% of the butterfly fauna. This genus is an extraordinary example of butterfly radiation. There are some forty Calisto species and subspecies that have managed to adapt to every possible environment on the island, from lowland desert; where temperatures reach , to -high mountain peaks; where frost covers the ground at night.
Calisto have extremely local ranges, and many species are rare and endangered. In the exceptionally dry Hispaniolan lowlands, four Calisto species survive on seemingly unpalatable Bunch Grass. In the highlands, several isolated species are associated with various bamboos. Some Calisto are known from just several specimens, and nothing is yet known about their biology. Many Calisto species are endangered and will probably go extinct in coming decades. There is little protection of their habitats, and the few national parks suffer from illegal logging, grazing, and agriculture. Dr. Andrei Sourakov conducted most of the recent Calisto research. His work described the biology of many species and reconstructs their evolutionary history.
Systematics and Classification of Ithomiinae
The nymphalid butterfly subfamily Ithomiinae contains some 360 species occurring only in the neotropical region, from southwestern
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
. Closely related to the subfamily Danainae, it represents one of the largest neotropical butterfly radiations. Ithomiine biology has been extensively studied for many years, and currently these butterflies are a model group for research into biogeography, evolution and genetics.
Despite much work on ithomiine systematics over the last 50 years, until recently there existed no phylogeny, or hypothesis of evolutionary relationships, between ithomiine species and genera. Dr. Keith Willmott is working with colleagues in United States and Brazil to study the morphology and genetics of these butterflies to derive a phylogeny for all genera and species groups. This phylogeny will be used to check the existing higher-level classification and to propose changes where necessary. He is also working with Gerardo Lamas, from the Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, in Lima, to revise the systematics and classification of all ithomiine genera that have not been studied in the past 50 years. This work involves approximately 200 species, of which 10% have yet to be described. Results should provide a stable framework for testing evolutionary hypotheses in this subfamily and for further studies of their ecology and biology in the field.
Taxonomy of Monarch butterflies
Most insect revisions and classifications are based mainly on the characters of adult insects. However, when the taxonomic status of a taxon is in question, molecular data and/or hybridization crosses can be employed. In order to clarify the taxonomic status of Danaus erippus, which has often been classified as a subspecies of Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), hybridization studies were performed by Dr. Hay-Roe. The results revealed the presence of pre- and postzygotic isolation between these two taxa. Pupal inviability and Haldane rule effects (male hybrids only, the homogametic sex in butterflies) were also observed. These results reinforce the hypothesis that plexippus and erippus are separate, reproductively isolated species. Chemical analysis of their cuticular hydrocarbons shows quantitative differences which may imply reproductive isolation between these two species.
Taxonomy and Systematics of Cyllopodini; revision of the genus Cyllopoda
The first part of this study is a revision of the genus
CyllopodaCyllopoda is a genus of moth in the family Geometridae.-References:*...
. This is the first part of what will hopefully be a comprehensive revision of the tribe Cyllopodini, with future work focusing on phylogenetic studies, mimicry, chemical ecology, and gaining knowledge of their life histories. Any study, in which modern reversionary techniques are employed, such as investigation of genitalic structures or phylogenetic analyses, will be instrumental in resolving some of the synonymy that exists in the family, and will contribute to a global integration of the tribal structure for this subfamily. The revision of the genus Cyllopoda was carried out by means of morphological taxonomic techniques only. Genetic techniques are an important supplement to morphological techniques and genetic analysis will be pursued at a later date and on a much wider scope including closely related tribes.
Mimicry complexes of butterflies and some species of diurnal moths have been investigated; however, no work has been published on mimicry complexes involving this tribe of geometrids. It has been established that the yellow and black coloration pattern in nature functions as aposematic or warning coloration. This aposematic coloration seen in the adults in this tribe may be a consequence of them being distasteful and involved in Müllerian mimicry, a result of them being Batesian mimics of similarly patterned species, or a combination of both types of mimicry. Investigation of the mimicry patterns and behavior of the adults and larvae of Cyllopodini is one of the future projects that would naturally follow this initial revision and which no doubt would contribute significantly to geometrid systematics and ecology, as well as our knowledge of the nature of mimicry.
Mammalogy
Since 1992, the mammalogy collection at Dickinson Hall has undergone rapid growth and expansion. Between 1979 and 2007, the collection has doubled, increasing from 14,000 to over 30,000 specimens. Since 2002, the Florida Museum has acquired the University of Miami's cetacean collection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's manatee collection.
The mammalogy collection has roughly 30,618 cataloged specimens and approximately 1,000 non-cataloged specimens. It consists primarily of skins and skulls, although entire skeletons have been prepared from all specimens acquired since 1992. There are 205 large tanned skins and 4,500, roughly 16% of the collection, has been preserved in fluid. The collection is preponderated by small mammals, primarily rodents and bats, from the southeastern US, the Caribbean, Latin America, South-America and 2,600 specimens from Pakistan.
An important component of the mammalogy collection is the marine mammal collection, consisting of 310 manatee, dolphin and over five hundred whales. The enormity of the collection is the result of a long-term cooperative effort with the
U.S. National Biological ServiceThe Biological Resources Discipline of the United States Geological Survey works with others to provide the scientific understanding and technologies needed to support the sound management and conservation of the United States' biological resources....
's Sirenia research project , Marine Mammal Stranding Network , researchers David and Melba Caldwell, and
Marineland of FloridaMarineland of Florida , one of Florida's first theme parks, is billed as "the world's first oceanarium". Marineland functions as an entertainment and swim with the dolphins facility, and re-opened to the public on March 4, 2006 .Marineland was first conceived by W...
. Other major collections that have been acquired and/or cataloged over the past 15 years include:
- Cross Florida Barge Canal
The Cross Florida Barge Canal was a canal project to connect the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean across Florida for barge traffic. Two sections were built but the project was cancelled, mainly for environmental reasons. It is now a protected green belt corridor, one mile wide...
collection (Florida Game & Fresh Water Fish Commission - 1,800 small mammals)
- Bowen collection of beach mice, Peromyscus polionotus (Bowen 1968) - 3,400
- James Layne collection of small mammals from Archbold Biological Station (2,100).
- Involvement with the Florida Panther
The Florida panther is a critically endangered representative of cougar that lives in the low tides, palm forests and swamps of southern Florida in the United States. Its current taxonomic status is unresolved...
Recovery Program has resulted in the only significant collection of this endangered subspecies in the entire USA with fewer than 50 individuals.
Average growth rate of the collection between 1989 and 1994 is 640 specimens per year, and 800 specimens per year for the previous 5 years; this is double the growth recorded for 1972-1979 of 290 specimens per year as reported in the survey of North American collections of recent mammals. Orphaned or donated collections account for approximately 60% of reported growth.
The mammal collection is primarily a research collection, but experiences a broad range of uses beyond this primary function. It is used as a teaching collection for undergraduate and graduate students; reference collection for law enforcement as a forensic identification of endangered species; as a reference collection for carnivore feeding studies i.e. owl pellet and scat analysis; a comparative material for students and faculty of zoo archeology and vertebrate paleontology (post-cranial skeletal collection). As part of a large university, the uses of the collection are diverse including applications in biomedical studies, wildlife dentistry, and even studies of environmental contaminants. As the concern for Florida's environment increases, so does the monitoring of habitats and species by state and federal biologists, resulting in an increased interest in the historical and recent distributions of mammals in Florida by a variety of state and federal agencies.
Ichthyology
The Florida Museum of Natural History ichthyological collection was ranked as the tenth most important fish specimen resource in the
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
and the second highest by the ranking National Center by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Since that survey was completed, the 65,000 lot
University of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida within Miami-Dade County...
collection was transferred and is currently being integrated into complete collection.
The collection itself contains more than 197,000 cataloged lots of which there are 2,150,000 specimens, representing more than 7,000 species. In addition, there is an unsorted backlog of about 25,000 lots, about 250,000 specimens. Most of the uncatalogued and backlog material was acquired through transfer of the important collections previously housed at the
National Marine Fisheries ServiceThe U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within...
biological laboratories in Miami, Pascagoula, MS, and the
University of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida within Miami-Dade County...
. The collection currently contains primary and secondary types of more than 325 taxa of freshwater and marine fishes.
The osteological collection comprises 2,500 lots of disarticulated skeletons representing over 320 species. Skeletal holdings emphasize the southeastern
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
, Central American and northwestern South American ichthyofaunas. Representative specimens of over 200 species have been cleared and stained. A radiograph collection and the original field notes of numerous individuals and organizations, including station sheets for virtually all U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/
National Marine Fisheries ServiceThe U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within...
and
University of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida within Miami-Dade County...
research vessels, are maintained.
The principal strengths of the fish collection are, in approximate order of importance, its holdings of (1) western and eastern Atlantic shelf and deep water marine fishes, (2) western Atlantic reef fishes, (3) North American freshwater fishes, especially from the southeastern United States, and (4) freshwater fishes from certain parts of
Central AmericaManagua
Guatemala City
San Salvador
San Pedro Sula
Panama City
San José, Costa Rica
Santa Ana, El Salvador
León
San Miguel|-|}...
,
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
and the West Indies. Of the above, categories (1), and (2) are nearly equal in importance.
Most of the material acquired from the
National Marine Fisheries ServiceThe U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within...
Tropical Atlantic Biological (TABL) collection consists of western Atlantic fishes from nearshore shallows to moderate depths, with the families Argentinidae, Atherinidae, Balistidae, Batrachoididae, Belonidae,
BothidaeLefteye flounders are a family, Bothidae, of flounders. They are called "lefteye flounders" because most species lie on the sea bottom on their right side, with both eyes on the left side...
, Branchiostomatidae,
CaproidaeBoarfishes are a small family, Caproidae, of marine fishes comprising two genera and twelve species. They are usually placed in the order Zeiformes with the dories, but this placement is uncertain, since boarfishes have many perciform characters, for instance in the caudal skeleton...
,
CarangidaeCarangidae is a family of fish which includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, and scads.They are marine fish found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans...
,
ClupeidaeClupeidae is the family of the herrings, shads, sardines, hilsa and menhadens. It includes many of the most important food fishes in the world.-Description and biology:...
,
CongridaeCongridae is the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from the sea floor after the manner of plants in a garden...
, Cynoglossidae, Dasyatidae, Engraulididae, Exocoetidae,
FundulidaeFundulidae is the family of topminnows and North American killifishes. The 46 species are native to North America as far south as Yucatan, and to the islands of Bermuda and Cuba, occurring in both freshwater and marine environments....
,
GadidaeGadidae is a family of marine fish, included in the order Gadiformes. It includes the cod, haddock, whiting, and pollock.Most species of gadid are found in temperate waters of the northern hemisphere, although there are some exceptions. They are generally medium sized fish, and are distinguished...
, Gerreidae,
HaemulidaeThe grunts are a family, Haemulidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. They are numerous and widespread, with about 150 species in 19 genera, found in tropical fresh, brackish and salt waters around the world...
, Hemiramphidae,
LutjanidaeSnappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine but with some members living in estuaries, and entering fresh water to feed. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapper....
, Macrouridae, Monacanthidae, Mugilidae,
OgcocephalidaeOgcocephalidae is a family of bottom-dwelling, specially adapted fish. They are sometimes referred to as batfishes or anglerfishes. They are found in deep, lightless waters of the Atlantic, Indian and western Pacific Oceans....
,
OphichthidaeOphichthidae is a family of eels, comprising species commonly called worm eels and snake eels. The term "Ophichthidae" comes from Greek ophis and ichthys ....
,
OphidiidaeThe cusk-eels family are a group of marine bony fishes in the order Ophidiiformes. The scientific name is from Greek ophis meaning "snake", and refers to their eel-like appearance...
,
ParalichthyidaeLarge-tooth flounders are a family, Paralichthyidae, of flounders. They lie on the sea bed on their right side; both eyes are on the left side of the head, while the Pleuronectidae are the opposite with their eyes on the right side....
, Peristediidae,
PriacanthidaePriacanthidae is a family of fish, common name bigeye, comprising 18 species of marine fishes. "Catalufa" is an alternate common name for some members of the priacanthidae family. The etymology of the scientific name refers to the family's very rough, spined scales...
, Rajiidae,
SciaenidaeSciaenidae is a family of fish commonly called drums, croakers, or hardheads for the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make...
,
ScombridaeScombridae is the family of the mackerels, tunas, and bonitos, and thus includes many of the most important and familiar food fishes. The family consists of about 55 species in 15 genera and two subfamilies...
,
SerranidaeSerranidae is a large family of fishes, belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species of serranids in 64 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers...
, Scorpaenidae, Scyliorhinidae,
SoleidaeThe true soles are a family, Soleidae, of flatfishes, and include species that live in salt water and fresh water. They are bottom-dwelling fishes feeding on small crustaceans and other invertebrates. Other flatfishes are also known as soles....
,
SparidaeThe Sparidae is a family of fish, included in the order Perciformes. The fish of the family are commonly called breams and porgies . The sheepshead, scup, and red sea bream are species in this family. They live in shallow temperate waters and are bottom-dwelling carnivores...
, Sphyraenidae,
StromateidaeThe family Stromateidae of butterfishes contains 17 species of fish in 3 genera. Butterfishes live in coastal waters off the Americas, western Africa and in the Indo-Pacific.-Species:* Genus Pampus...
,
SqualidaeSqualidae is the family of dogfish sharks. They are found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans, from tropical equatorial climates to the Arctic and Antarctic....
,
SyngnathidaeSyngnathidae is a family of fish which includes the seahorses, the pipefishes, and the weedy and leafy sea dragons. The name is derived from Greek, meaning "fused jaw" - syn meaning fused or together, and gnathus meaning jaws. This fused jaw trait is something the entire family has in common...
,
SynodontidaeThe Lizardfishes are a family, the Synodontidae, of aulopiform fish. They are found in tropical and subtropical marine waters throughout the world....
, Tetraodontidae, and Triglidae most common. These collections have been substantially augmented by the field activities of museum personnel and donations made over the last 20 years. Eastern Atlantic collections from the
Gulf of GuineaThe Gulf of Guinea is the part of the Atlantic Ocean southwest of Africa. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf...
are available in some abundance. The western Atlantic collections acquired from the National Marine Fisheries Service Pascagoula laboratory and University of Miami are generally from greater depths and represent some of the museum's most valuable resources. Deepwater anguilliform, salmoniform, stomiiform, aulopiform, myctophiform, and ophidiiform families are particularly well represented. For certain families, i.e. searsiidae,
alepocephalidaeSlickheads or nakedheads are a family, Alepocephalidae, of osmeriform fishes. They are deep-water fishes most common below 1,000 m...
, these collections may be among the best North American holdings from the western Atlantic region.
The holdings of western Atlantic reef fishes are among the most important in existence, with the following geographic areas most heavily collected: Florida, the Bahamas, Isla de Providencia, the
Cayman IslandsThe Cayman Islands are a British overseas territory located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
, the
Virgin IslandsThe Virgin Islands are an archipelago, part of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles, where the Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean....
and the
Lesser AntillesThe Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies...
. Smaller numbers of reef fish collections exist from
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
,
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Sombrero Island, other
Lesser AntillesThe Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies...
islands, continental islands off northern South America,
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
, and
Ascension IslandAscension Island is an isolated island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa, and from the coast of South America. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Saint Helena, which is to...
. There are a substantial number of reef fishes from off the Carolinas. Major reef groups represented include the
AcanthuridaeAcanthuridae is the family of surgeonfishes, tang, and unicornfishes. The family includes about 80 species in six genera, all of which are marine fish living in tropical seas, usually around coral reefs...
, Antenariidae,
ApogonidaeCardinalfishes are a family, Apogonidae, of ray-finned fishes. They are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans, they are chiefly marine, but some species are found in brackish water...
, Blenniidae,
ChaenopsidaeThe blennioid family Chaenopsidae includes the pike-blennies, tube-blennies and flagblennies: all perciform marine fish. The family is strictly tropical, ranging from North to South America...
, Chaetodontidae, Clinidae, Dactyloscopidae,
GobiesocidaeClingfishes are fishes of the family Gobiesocidae. Most species are marine, being found in shallow waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are bottom-dwelling fishes; some species shelter in sea urchins or crinoids.-Description:...
, Gobiidae, Grammistidae,
HaemulidaeThe grunts are a family, Haemulidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes. They are numerous and widespread, with about 150 species in 19 genera, found in tropical fresh, brackish and salt waters around the world...
,
HolocentridaeThe Holocentridae is a family of ray-finned fish, belonging to the order Beryciformes with the members of the subfamily Holocentrinae typically known as squirrelfish, while the members of Myripristinae typically are known as soldierfish...
, Kyphosidae, Labridae,
LutjanidaeSnappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine but with some members living in estuaries, and entering fresh water to feed. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapper....
, Mullidae, Muraenidae, Ostraciidae,
OpistognathidaeOpistognathidae , commonly referred to as jawfishes, are classified within Order Perciformes, Suborder Percoidei. They are found throughout shallow reef areas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Gulf of Mexico.Physically similar to blennies, jawfish are generally smaller-sized fish with an...
, Pomacanthidae,
PomacentridaePomacentridae is a family of perciform fish, comprising the damselfishes and clownfishes. They are exclusively marine , and noted for their hardy constitutions and territoriality. Many are brightly coloured, so they are popular in aquaria....
, Scaridae,
SerranidaeSerranidae is a large family of fishes, belonging to the order Perciformes. The family contains about 450 species of serranids in 64 genera, including the sea basses and the groupers...
, and Tripterygidae. Eastern Pacific reef collections are present from the Pearl Islands south to Ecuador. Also available are a fair number of Indo-Pacific reef fishes acquired by staff collecting and by donations received from the
Bishop MuseumThe Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaii State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawai'i and is home to the world's...
and the
National Museum of Natural HistoryThe National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
. Over 200 shore and estuarine collections have been made from the Caribbean coasts of Costa Rica and Panama.
The museum's worldwide holdings of elasmobranchs, particularly squaloid sharks, have grown rapidly in the last 15 years and are an important international resource. Other elasmobranch groups prominently represented include Carcharhinidae, Dasyatidae, Gymnuridae, Myliobatidae, Rajidae, Rhinobatidae, Scyliorhinidae, Sphyrnidae, Squatinidae, Torpedinidae and Triakidae.
Holdings of freshwater fishes are greatest from the southeastern United States, particularly Florida. In addition, an effort has been made to obtain as complete a taxonomic and geographic coverage of freshwater species as possible from throughout North America. As a result, over 90 percent of the freshwater fish species from the United States and Canada are represented in the collection. Best represented are members of the
CatostomidaeCatostomidae is the sucker family of the order Cypriniformes. There are 80 species in this family of freshwater fishes. Catostomidae are found in North America, east central China, and eastern Siberia...
,
CentrarchidaeThe sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies...
, Cyprinidae, Elassomatidae,
FundulidaeFundulidae is the family of topminnows and North American killifishes. The 46 species are native to North America as far south as Yucatan, and to the islands of Bermuda and Cuba, occurring in both freshwater and marine environments....
,
IctaluridaeThe Ictaluridae, sometimes called Ictalurids, are a family of catfish native to North America, where they are important food fish and sometimes as a sport fish. They include fish commonly known as bullheads, madtoms, channel catfish, and blue catfish....
, Lepisosteidae,
PercidaeThe Percidae are a family of perciform fish found in fresh and brackish waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The family contains about 200 species in ten genera...
, Petromyzontidae and
PoeciliidaePoeciliidae is a family of fresh-water fish which are live-bearing aquarium fish . They belong to the order Cyprinodontiformes, tooth-carps, and include well-known aquarium fish like the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail...
. Freshwater fishes from Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, Hispaniola, Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica are currently represented in moderate to large numbers in the collection. The Florida Museum of Natural History's Hispaniolan holdings are unsurpassed and the Venezuelan holdings are growing continuously. A wide spectrum of characoid, gymnotoid and siluroid families, cichlids, and poeciliids are especially well represented
Malacology
The mollusk collection was initiated through the efforts of T. van Hyning, the first director of the museum, and was small and composed mostly of local taxa until 1965. In 1973, the mollusk collection consisted of 22,174 cataloged lots and ranked 19th in the US. The collection has grown rapidly since, through numerous field surveys and acquisition of relinquished collections. Since 2000,
MalacologyMalacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology which deals with the study of mollusca , the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods...
has also hosted a growing collection of non-molluscan marine invertebrates. About 100,000 species of mollusks are known, and the collection holds over 30,000 species among 400,000 lots of specimens. Over 300,000 lots are now databased and accessible online. The collection is among the five largest in the US, and one of the most rapidly growing. It is second largest mollusk collection in the world in online accessibility.
The collection is especially strong in regional taxa. Malacology has one of the largest collections of terrestrial and freshwater mollusks from the southeastern US. Overall marine mollusks comprise 38% of cataloged holdings; freshwater species make up 18% and terrestrial taxa 44%. Gastropods comprise 83%, bivalves 16%, while all other mollusk classes combined <1% of the collection. Three quarters of the collection is from the western hemisphere, while 18% is from tropical Australasia and surrounding Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. The mollusk collection has unique strengths in land, freshwater and marine mollusks. The museum has the largest land snail collection in the world from Hispaniola, Mexico-Central America,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
and
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
, and also has especially large holdings from the southeastern
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, West Indies, Andean
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
,
MadagascarMadagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to...
,
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
, and
OceaniaOceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville...
. Freshwater mollusk collections are strong for the southeastern United States,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Central America, Andean South America, and the Philippines. Large subtropical and tropical West Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific holdings characterize the marine collection, and tropical marine collections are undergoing rapid growth. These strengths reflect a former regional focus of the museum and research focus of the curators: on terrestrial and freshwater mollusks of Middle America and Southeast Asia, and on tropical marine mollusks, respectively.
Botany and the Florida Herbarium
The botany collection is an excellent representation of the vascular flora of Florida and the southeastern United States coastal plain, including abundant material from the 19th century. The bryophyte and lichen collections encompass Florida and tropical areas, especially Costa Rica, Venezuela and Brazil. The Fungal Herbarium is exhibits Florida fungi, especially agarics and polypores, and the wood collection is worldwide with a tropical emphasis. The addition of a preeminent brings the total museum botanical collection holdings to around one-half of a million specimens.
Noteworthy additions include the A. A. Cuthbert Herbarium of approximately 5000 specimens, the plant holdings of the Florida State Museum (4711 specimens, including the Herbarium of S. C. Hood), several thousand more S. C. Hood collections, 15770 specimens of lichens, liverworts and mosses collected by Severin Rapp, wood blocks and vouchers of American wood and economic trees from the New York State School of Forestry, George E. Ritchey specimens from the U. S. Plant Introduction Garden, Edward and Robert P. St. John Florida ferns, innumerable West and Arnold collections and those received through inter-institutional exchange. The herbarium also benefited from the prominent studies of H. Harold Hume (Zephyranthes, Ilex, and Camellia) and William A. Murrill (Crataegus and fungi) and in 1989 Angus K. Gholson, Jr. donated his entire herbarium (15,000 specimens), library and related equipment and supplies. This is an excellent collection especially rich in its representation of the flora of the Florida Panhandle.
Herpetology
With approximately 202,000 specimens, the herpetology collection is estimated to be the 9th largest in the US. Its skeletal collection, with more than 11,000 disarticulated skeletons and a small number of cleared and stained specimens, is 5th largest. An average of 3,800 specimens a year are catalogued. The collection contains 60
holotypeA holotype is one of several possible biological types. A type is what fixes a name to a taxon. A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described...
s and 919
paratype- Zoology :In zoological nomenclature, a paratype is officially defined as "Each specimen of a type series other than the holotype."In turn, this does depend on the definition of "type series." A type series is the material that was cited in the original publication of the new species or...
s representing 176 taxa. Additional taxa are in the process of being described.
Though worldwide in scope, the collection contains approximately 2,300 species from the
NeotropicIn biogeography, the Neotropic or Neotropical zone is one of the world's eight terrestrial ecozones. This ecozone includes South and Central America, the Mexican lowlands, the Caribbean islands, and southern Florida, because these regions share a large number of plant and animal groups.It is...
s, 600 from Asia, 390 from the Nearctic, 350 from Africa, 275 from the Palearctic, and 220 from Australia/Oceania. Large holdings of land tortoises and varanid lizards resulted from Walter Auffenberg's research, and his work on the 'HERPETOLOGY OF PAKISTAN' produced the world's largest Pakistan collection. Large numbers of sea turtles came from Archie Carr and his students. Wayne King's surveys of Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guyana, assembled the largest collection of Latin American crocodilians. Sizable collections of Kinosternid turtles were donated by John Iverson, softshells by Peter Meylan, and Panama amphibians and reptiles by the late Howard W. Campbell. Samuel R. Telford, Jr., provided extensive collections from Japan, Burma, Panama, Venezuela, Tanzania, and Pakistan, and smaller numbers from Zaire, Thailand and the Philippines. Recorded vocalizations of 46 species of amphibians and 20 species of reptiles are catalogued in the museum's Bioacoustic Archives.
Ornithology
The recent bird skeleton collection of 24,500 specimens, representing about 3,000 species, is approximately fifth largest in the world in number of specimens and species. In 1992, the museum received the recent bird skeleton collection assembled by Prof. Pierce Brodkorb of the
University of FloridaThe University of Florida is a public land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant major research university located on a campus located in Gainesville, Florida, in the United States. The university traces its origins to 1853, and has continuously operated on its present Gainesville campus since the fall...
's Department of
ZoologyZoology, also spelled zoölogy, is the branch of biology that focuses on the structure, function, behavior, and evolution of animals. The zoologist's pronunciation of "zoology" is , though a common spelling pronunciation is .-Systems of classification:...
. The skeleton collection has grown by 140% since 2002. It contains specimens from 47 U.S. states and 103 countries.
The largest collections by state:
| Florida 11,169 |
California 638 |
Maine 227 |
Massachusetts 218 |
Georgia 213 |
| Alaska 201 |
New York 154 |
Texas 142 |
Arizona 140 |
Virginia 124 |
The top ten countries are:
| US 13,282 |
Mexico 745 |
Netherlands 397 |
Costa Rica 320 |
Kenya 312 |
| Panama 252 |
Zimbabwe 217 |
Suriname 213 |
Canada 198 |
Australia 124 |
Taxonomically the collection ranges across the class Aves, representing 23 orders, 128 families, and 950 genera.
The bird skin collection contains approximately 20,500 specimens representing at least 2,300 species. These are mostly study skins, but in recent years the division has prepared a large proportion of new specimens as flat skins or spread wings with associated skeletons. In 1992, the division also received a collection of approximately 3,000 skins. The skin collection has grown by 23% in the last five years. Also wide-ranging taxonomically, it represents 27 orders, 129 families, and 850 genera. Rarities include skins of
Ivory-billed WoodpeckerThe Ivory-billed Woodpecker is one of several species whose numbers have dwindled to the point where it is uncertain whether any remain. The species is listed as critically endangered and possibly extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature...
s and extinct
Dusky Seaside SparrowThe Dusky Seaside Sparrow, Ammodramus maritimus nigrescens, was a non-migratory subspecies of the Seaside Sparrow, found in Southern Florida in the natural salt marshes of Merritt Island and along the St. John's River...
s,
Passenger PigeonThe passenger pigeon or wild pigeon was a species of pigeon that was once the most common bird in North America...
s, and
Carolina ParakeetThe Carolina Parakeet was the only parrot species native to the eastern United States. It was found from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico, and lived in old forests along rivers. It was the only species at the time classified in the genus Conuropsis...
s.
The egg collection, consisting of 10,400 sets representing 733 species, is 11th largest in North America in number of sets and 15th largest in number of species. It represents approximately 90% of the species and subspecies of North American birds. The egg collection has grown by 1% in the last five years. It is cataloged in a card file that includes original collectors' data slips or page references to the collector's field notes. Especially well represented are sets from New England and Florida. The collection is rich in sets of raptor eggs, including
Bald EagleThe Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America that is most recognizable as the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle. Its range includes most of Canada and Alaska, all of the...
s,
OspreyThe Osprey , sometimes known as the sea hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching 60 centimetres in length with a 1.8 metre wingspan...
s,
Broad-winged HawkThe Broad-winged Hawk is a small hawk of the Buteo genus. During the summer they are distributed over most of eastern North America, to as far west as the Alberta province and Texas; they then migrate south to winter in the neotropics from Mexico down to Southern Brazil...
s,
Red-shouldered HawkThe Red-shouldered Hawk is a medium-sized hawk. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico.-Description:...
s, Northern Caracaras,
American KestrelThe American Kestrel is a small falcon. This bird was colloquially known in North America as the "Sparrow Hawk". This name is misleading because it implies a connection with the Eurasian Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus, which is unrelated; the latter is an accipiter rather than a falcon...
s, the Florida races of Seaside Sparrows and
Clapper RailThe Clapper Rail is a member of the rail family, Rallidae. It is found along the east coast of North America, the coasts and some islands of the Caribbean, and across northern South America to eastern Brazil...
s. Rarities include sets of Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet, and
Bachman's WarblerBachman's Warbler is a small passerine bird that inhabited the swamps and lowland forests of the southeast United States. This warbler was a migrant, wintering in Cuba.-An extinct species:...
eggs.
The bird sound collection, in the museum Bioacoustic Archives, with 20,500 cataloged recordings representing about 3,000 species, is the fourth largest in the world in number of species. In the western hemisphere it is the second largest in number of species and third largest in number of recordings. The sound collection is completely cataloged in an electronic database, but the sound recordings themselves are still analog.
Geographical strengths include North America, especially Florida, and the Neotropics, with smaller but notable numbers of recordings from Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asia. Some taxonomic groups especially well represented are tinamous,
trogonThe trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family contains 39 species in eight genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the mid-Eocene. They might constitute a member of the basal radiation of...
s,
woodpeckerWoodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....
s,
antbirdThe antbirds are a large family, Thamnophilidae, of passerine birds found across subtropical and tropical Central and South America, from Mexico to Argentina. There are more than 200 species, known variously as antshrikes, antwrens, antvireos, fire-eyes, bare-eyes and bushbirds...
s, New World flycatchers,
wrenThe wrens are passerine birds in the mainly New World family Troglodytidae. There are about 80 species of true wrens in about 20 generaThe genus eponymous of the family is Troglodytes....
s, New World wood warblers, and corvids.
Vertebrate Paleontology
The FLMNH vertebrate fossil collections feature rich samples of all vertebrate classes, mainly from the Cenozoic Era. Included are about 400,000 specimens. Holotypes number about 200 specimens. The FLMNH vertebrate fossil collections also include the former Florida Geological Survey Collection and the UF Department of Zoology Fossil Bird Collection. Each of these collections is maintained in a separate catalog, under the acronyms UF/FGS and UF/PB, respectively. The FLMNH collections provide the most complete basis available for study of Cenozoic vertebrate paleontology in the southeastern United States and the Caribbean Basin.
University of Florida (UF) Collection
The UF collection currently contains about 385,000 specimens assigned to over 234,000 unique catalogue numbers and over 150 holotypes. The UF collection has experienced rapid, sometimes explosive, growth since the 1950s and now ranks in the top five nationally in terms of total catalogued specimens. Consistent with our museum's mission as the official repository for Florida's natural history specimens, about 90 percent of this collection comes from about 1,000 separate localities throughout Florida. A particular strength of the UF collection is the extraordinary array of land-animals from the past 25 million years in Florida, forming the best record documenting the evolution of ancient vertebrate life in eastern North America over this interval. Other major strengths of the UF collection include extensive holdings from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and other Caribbean islands, fossils from Central and South America (especially Bolivia, Honduras, and Panama), and specimens from the late Eocene to Oligocene "Badlands" of western Nebraska. On-going field work begun by our new curator Jonathan Bloch in 2004 will over time produce a significant collection of Paleocene and early Eocene vertebrates from basins in Wyoming and Montana.
Prior to 1953, the UF collection consisted of only a few hundred specimens, mostly acquired through public donation, and of little scientific value. Beginning in 1953, serious fossil prospecting began at the University of Florida, initially lead by Robert S. Bader and Walter A. Auffenberg, both then members of the Department of Biology. Clayton Ray became the museum’s first curator of vertebrate paleontology in 1959. He left in 1963 to take a position at the Smithsonian. Recognizing the importance of vertebrate paleontology in Florida, in 1964 museum director J. C. Dickinson hired two vertebrate paleontology curators, S. David Webb and Thomas H. Patton. Together they quickly moved the museum’s research program to the forefront of the field, symbolized by their hosting in Gainesville the prestigious annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in the fall of 1964, the first time this meeting had been held in the Southeastern United States. Patton left in the mid-1970s to pursue a career in the legal profession, and was replaced in 1977 by Bruce J. MacFadden. Webb retired in 2003, and Jonathan I. Bloch was hired to fill the vacant curator position. Since 1964 the FLMNH VP curators have mentored many dozens of graduate students, produced numerous books, monographs, and research papers, and directed field operations in Florida, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the western U.S. Another important feat was the creation of the Florida Paleontological Society and the forming of a strong bond between the professional paleontologists at the museum and the amateur fossil collectors throughout the state of Florida. Although technically curators in other museum divisions, Walter Auffenberg (Herpetology) and Charles A. Woods (Mammalogy) both had research interests that included paleontology and helped build the collection.
In addition to the curators, other full-time staff at the FLMNH have made significant contributions to the UF collections. The first fossil preparator was Howard H. Converse, who worked at the museum from the late 1960s through the mid 1980s. He was followed by Russell McCarty , who retired in 2006. Jane Mason is the current vertebrate paleontology preparator. Gary S. Morgan was collections manager from 1981 through 1993, and oversaw the curation of massive numbers of specimens from the Love Bone Bed, Thomas Farm, Leisey Shell Pit, Bone Valley, Haiti, and elsewhere. He was replaced by Marc Frank (1994-1998) and Richard C. Hulbert (2000-present).
Florida Geological Survey Collection
The Florida Geological Survey fossil vertebrate collection (FGS) was started during the 1910s and was originally housed in Tallahassee. Under the direction of E. H. Sellards, Herman Gunter, and S. J. Olsen, the FGS collection was the primary source of fossil vertebrate descriptions from Florida until the early 1960s. World-renown paleontologists such as George G. Simpson, Edwin H. Colbert, and Henry F. Osborn wrote scientific papers about specimens in the FGS collection in addition to Sellards and Olsen. In 1976 the entire FGS fossil vertebrate collection was transferred to the Florida Museum of Natural History with support from a National Science Foundation grant. The UF/FGS collection is composed of about 22,000 specimens assigned to about 10,000 catalogue numbers, and almost all of them were collected in Florida. The majority of specimens in the UF/FGS collection are mammals, followed by reptiles, birds, and a relatively small number of amphibians and fish. Although there are some sites that are unique to the UF/FGS collection, many of the sites overlap with holdings in the main UF and UF/PB collections. The major strengths of the UF/FGS collection are historically important samples from the early Miocene Thomas Farm locality, the middle Miocene and early Pliocene deposits of the Bone Valley Region, Polk County, and from the late Pleistocene Vero locality, Indian River County.
Pierce Brodkorb Collection
The Pierce Brodkorb Collection (UF/PB) was amassed by Professor Brodkorb of the University of Florida over his long and renown career as one of the world's foremost experts on fossil birds. His heirs donated his extensive collections of modern bird skeletons and fossil birds to the Florida Museum of Natural History in 1992. The modern skeletons are housed by the museum's Ornithology collection. Brodkorb's fossil bird collection was curated and computer cataloged with support from the National Science Foundation. The UF/PB collection is composed of about 8,500 cataloged specimens and includes 42 holotypes. About 85 per cent of the UF/PB specimens were collected in Florida, and range in age from early Miocene to latest Pleistocene. Other large holdings are Pleistocene birds from Bermuda and the Bahamas.
Caribbean Archeology
The Caribbean Archeology Program Collection was founded in 1960 by Dr. Ripley P. Bullen. The program is based around one of the largest systematic collections of pre-Columbian artifacts in North America. What the collection lacks in size is compensated for by its diversity. The collection contains systematic collections from sites on the islands of
AntiguaAntigua is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after a church in Spain, Santa Maria La Antigua — St. Mary the Ancient...
,
ArubaAruba is a -long island of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, north of the Paraguaná Peninsula, Falcón State, Venezuela. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands of the Leeward Antilles, the southern island chain of the Lesser Antilles.An...
, Bahamas,
BarbadosBarbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent West Indian Continental Island-nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. For over three centuries Barbados was a colony and protectorate of the United Kingdom; and still currently maintains Queen Elizabeth II as head of state...
,
CuraçaoCuraçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The island area of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is one of five island areas of the Netherlands...
,
Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are occupied by two countries...
,
GrenadaGrenada is an island country and sovereign state consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. Grenada is located northwest of Trinidad and Tobago, northeast of Venezuela, and southwest of Saint Vincent and the...
,
GuadeloupeGuadeloupe is an archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at , with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres . It is an overseas department of France. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also one of the twenty-six regions of France and an integral part of the Republic...
,
GuyanaGuyana officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is a state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean.Guyana was discovered in 1498 by the Europeans,Guyana's past is punctuated by battles fought and won,...
,
HaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago...
,
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
,
Marie-GalanteMarie-Galante is an island of the Caribbean Sea located in the Guadeloupean archipelago. Marie-Galante is constitutionally part of France, as Guadeloupe is an overseas région and département....
,
MartiniqueMartinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . It is an overseas department of France. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is also one of the twenty-six regions of...
,
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
, St. Lucia, St. Martin, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam,
TobagoTobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean Sea, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada...
,
TrinidadTrinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the country of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just 11 km off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of 4,768 km² it is also the fifth...
, Turks and Caicos, U.S. Virgin Islands, and
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, each collection has accompanying documentation.
The “Bullen” collection was recently re-inventoried and reorganized. During this reorganization, type collections; composed of all the artifacts illustrated in Bullen’s publications, were also created. These collection catalogs, which are based on the tables published in the Bullens' reports, are available for all of the islands and sites represented in the collection. Presently a map of the West Indies and a list of the islands and the sites represented in the collection are available to the public.
The collection includes artifacts recovered during excavations directed by Dr. Charles A. Hoffman, Jr. on the islands of Antigua and St. Kitts, a study collection derived from the excavations directed by Dr. Kathleen A. Deagan from the sites of En Bas Saline and Puerto Réal, Haiti, a collection of important artifacts donated by Mr. Leon Wilder that were surface collected from sites in Grenada and a number of artifacts recovered from sites in Jamaica and Grenada that were recently donated by Mr. Geoffrey Senior.
Survey and excavation projects are an integral part of the Caribbean Archeology Program. Since 1987, research teams from the museum have undertaken surveys and excavations in Antigua, the Bahamas, Grand Cayman, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Ceramic Technology Laboratory
The Ceramic Technology Laboratory was established in 1977 under the direction of Dr. Prudence Rice, then UF professor of Anthropology. Pottery analysis plays an integral role in archaeological research at the museum as it constitutes the predominant material remaining at most archaeological sites investigated by museum curators. In addition pottery constitutes a very significant proportion of the Anthropology collections. The Ceramic Technology Laboratory is equipped for basic paste characterization studies: binocular microscope for gross identification of temper or paste constituents; a petrographic microscope for precise mineral identification in thin section; an electric furnace used for refiring experiments and for comparative investigation of clay samples collected from the vicinity of archaeological sites. Analysis of physical and mineralogical properties of the pottery are undertaken to provide precise data to address research questions regarding chronology, provenience or manufacturing origins, processes of production, culture change, and the development of social and economic complexity in prehistoric Florida, the Southeastern US, and the Caribbean Basin. The department is committed to the continuance of this research program as the capacity for in-house specialized analysis of pottery enhances the competitiveness for research grants.
The Ceramic Technology Laboratory houses an extensive pottery type collection of prehistoric and historic period aboriginal pottery from Florida and the Southeastern U.S. The Florida materials represent type specimens assembled by Ripley Bullen, John Goggin, and Gordon Willey, pioneers of Florida archeology. The type collections serve as a primary comparative resource for museum scientists, graduate students, and visiting researchers. The Ceramic Technology Laboratory also curates fragments of pottery samples used in paste characterization studies.
Florida Archeology
The Florida Archeology Collection includes artifacts spanning 12,000 years of human history in the Southeast. While the focus of this collection is on Florida, some materials from Georgia and other localities are included. These items are curated as a tangible record of the people who have made Florida their home. The Florida Archeology Collections come from Central and North Florida and the Panhandle regions. All counties including and north of Sarasota, De Soto, Hardee, Polk, Osceola, and Indian River counties are included in this collection. Exceptions to this rule are sites situated within Colonial St. Augustine and historical sites with no pre-Columbian material present, collections from these locales are included in the Historical Archaeology Collections. Counties to the south are part of the South Florida Archeology Collections. Information concerning policies associated with our collections are found below.
The Excavated Collections include all archaeological materials that have been excavated using systematic recovery techniques. While recovery techniques vary depending on the project, site, and supervising archaeologist, all of these collections have associated provenience data. Documentation such as field notes, maps, and photographs are often available with the collection.
Below is a select list of sites in the Florida Archeology Collections.
Abraham's Old Town
Abraham's Old Town or Pilaklikaha is a multicomponent site in
Sumter CountySumter County is a county located in the state of Florida, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 53,345. The 2006 Census estimate puts its population at 68,768 . Its county seat is Bushnell, Florida and the largest incorporated municipality is Wildwood, Florida. The Villages,...
. The site includes a ceramic period occupation (Pasco and Sand-Tempered Plain) and possibly a preceramic component. The site's significance is its identification as Pilaklikaha, a town inhabited by Black Seminole Indians during the early 1800s. The collection includes lithics, ceramics (both European and Seminole), glass beads, trade pipe fragments, bottle glass, brick, cut nails and other metal fragments recovered during excavations from 1998-2001.
Aucilla River Prehistory Project
The collection contains prehistoric lithic, bone and mammoth ivory tools, ceramics, historic materials, plant remains, and
PleistoceneThe Pleistocene is the epoch from 2.588 million to 12 000 years BP covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
and
HoloceneThe Holocene is a geological epoch which began approximately 11 700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Neogene and Quaternary periods. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely...
fossils from assorted sites along the Aucilla River. Notable items in this collection include the fossilized bones of Pleistocene animals exhibiting butcher and cut marks, numerous stone Paleoindian projectile points, and carved ivory shafts.
Bolen Bluff
Bolen Bluff is a multicomponent site located south of
Paynes PrairiePaynes Prairie is a Florida State Park, encompassing a 21,000 acre savanna south of Gainesville, Florida, in Micanopy. It is also a U.S. National Natural Landmark. It is crossed by both I-75 and U.S. 441 .-History:...
. The site was excavated by Ripley Bullen in 1949. Large portions of the site were destroyed and used for fill during highway construction. The collections include numerous stone points and tools including: Suwannee, Bolen, Arredondo, and Pinellas points, as well as: stone adzes, hoes, drills, and scrapers. Pottery types span the entire range of ceramic periods in the area: Orange, Transitional, Deptford, Weeden Island, St. Johns, and Alachua.
de Soto Survey
The de Soto archaeological survey project was conducted from 1986-1991 to locate and identify early Spanish-Indian contact period sites in north Florida. The six surveys identified or revisited over 750 archaeological sites in 15 counties (Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Citrus, Clay, Columbia, Gilchrist, Lafayette, Madison, Marion, Putnam, Sumter, Suwannee, and Union). Some of the major sites identified and excavated were: the location of the Spanish mission at Fig Springs, the Spanish mission of Santa Fe and the Indian Pond site.
McKeithen Site
The McKeithen Site is a Weeden Island (AD 200-900) site in Columbia County excavated during the late 1970s. The site is composed of a village area and three mounds. The collections from the site include an excellent variety of Weeden Island ceramics, including numerous whole or almost whole vessels from different areas of the site. The collections also include a variety of stone points and tools, grinding stones, mica, and some faunal and floral remains.
Richardson Site
The Richardson Site is a Potano Indian village near
Orange LakeOrange Lake may refer to:*Orange Lake, Florida*Orange Lake, New York**Orange Lake , the body of water for which the above community is named...
that dates from the late pre-Columbian and early Spanish mission period. The site provides us with valuable information on Potano houses and early Spanish missionization. Collections include a large collection of Alachua pottery, lithics, glass beads, wrought nails, and faunal material.
Spanish Mission collections
The collections from Spanish mission sites are an important part of the Florida archaeological collections. The Florida Archeology curates large collections from 11 mission sites: Baptizing Spring, Fox Pond, Santa Fe, Fig Springs, Indian Pond, Scott Miller, San Juan, Beatty, Blue Bead and Baldree and the sites on
Amelia IslandAmelia Island is one of the southernmost of the Sea Islands, a chain of barrier islands that stretches along the east coast of the United States from South Carolina to Florida. It is long and approximately 4 miles wide at its widest point. Amelia Island is situated south of Cumberland Island,...
. There are also numerous other Spanish mission period sites associated with missions or haciendas, including: Moon Lake, Richardson, Zetrouer, Carlisle, and Peacock Lake.
Tatham Mound
Tatham Mound is a Safety Harbor mound located near the Withlacochee River in Citrus county. The site was also in use at the time of the Soto entrada as evidenced by numerous Spanish artifacts dating to mid-1500s. The collections include Safety Harbor ceramic vessels, Pinellas points and other lithic tools, and many shell artifacts: gorget, celt, dippers, and beads. Spanish artifacts include: metal beads and pendants, Nueva Cadiz and other glass beads, and metal artifacts including chisels, spikes, and armor fragments.
Donated Private Collections
Private collections donated by individuals and families represent an important aspect of the Florida Archeology collections. These collections include provenienced artifacts from all over Florida and a limited amount of material from other areas of North America. Many of these collections are from well-known sites and are valuable sources of exhibit quality artifacts and research collections. These collections range in size from small surface collections from single sites to collections that cover large portions of the state and include thousands of artifacts.
A representative sample of donated private collections curated at the museum includes the following collections organized by family name.
| Becker |
Burkhardt |
Haufler |
Hendrix |
McMullen
(Osceola, Polk, Volusia Counties) |
| Means |
Ohmes |
Pearsall |
Simpson |
McDonald
(Brevard County) |
Bullen Projectile Point Typology Collection
The Ripley Bullen Projectile Point Type Collection is the original assortment of artifacts Bullen used to create the first formal point typology for Florida in 1967. Bullen's typology was revised in 1975 and published as A Guide to the Identification of Florida Projectile Points. This collection is curated as an original reference collection for visiting researchers and the general public.
Osteological Collections
Human osteological collections curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History include skeletal remains from pre-Columbian and historic archaeological sites across Florida, Georgia, and several localities in the Caribbean. These collections are maintained for research and teaching purposes. Access to these collections is limited to the academic community and professionals in the private sector involved in scholarly research.
Historical Archeology
The historical archeology collections of the Florida Museum of Natural History consists of more than 2 million excavated specimens from more than 100 sites throughout Florida and Latin America. They include the largest known systematic collection of Spanish colonial archaeological specimens in the country, representing sites of domestic, military, religious and commercial sites dating from 1492 through the nineteenth century.
The collection also incorporates archaeological specimens from a variety of non-Spanish eighteenth and nineteenth century sites, including homesteads, plantations, trading posts, forts and towns.
In addition to systematic collections resulting form excavation, the Historical Archeology Department also maintains extensive collections of type specimens, comparative specimens and published specimens for historical archeology. The materials span the period of 1493-1900, and are used extensively as a reference collection, a comparative collection and a teaching collection.
The St. Augustine Collections
The materials from St. Augustine, Florida (1565-present) were generated by systematic archaeological excavations from a forty year period (1959-1999) on 33 Spanish colonial, British colonial, African American, American Indian and post-colonial sites in St. Augustine, Florida. They include more than 1 million items of glass, metals, stone, shell and bone. They are curated jointly by the University of Florida, the Florida Division of Historical Resources and the City of St. Augustine at the museum.
The Latin American Collections
Some of the earliest historical archeology collections in the region are found in our collection. John Goggin's ambitious program of historical archeology during the 1940s and 1950's generated a large collection of materials from sites throughout the Caribbean and Central America. His collaborations with such researchers as Emile Boyrie of the Dominican Republic, José Cruxent of Venezuela and Irving Rouse of Yale additionally resulted in the exchange of smaller comparative collections from throughout the region.
Excavations in Haiti conducted by Charles Fairbanks and Kathleen Deagan between 1979 and 1988 also generated two large Historic-era collections that are being curated at the Florida Museum of Natural History on behalf of the Haitian government.
The Historical Florida Collections
In addition to the collections from St. Augustine and Latin America, the Historical Archeology collections also include materials excavated from a variety of towns, missions, plantations and forts in Florida and the southeastern United States.
External links