Science Stories Archive
Archived Stories - Biodiversity and Conservation
(03/2009) When it comes to invasive species in South Florida, the black spiny-tailed iguana (Ctenosaura similis) holds its own. The Central American native isn't imported for the pet trade like the green iguana...
(01/2009) Commonly known as the paper tree (arbol de papel) due to its papery layers of bark, the genus grows in forests far beyond the elevation of other trees. These patches provide habitat on a harsh...
(01/2009) Worldwide, there are only 75 known instances of unprovoked bull shark attacks and 23 human fatalities on record in the International Shark Attack Files, a global database...
(12/2008) In May 2008, a team of researchers from the Florida Museum traveled to Madagascar to search remaining patches of lowland forest for land snails and to document new snail species. Non-marine mollusks like land snails are the animal group...
(11/2008) The process of resource overexploitation is not a new one. Rather, it began prehistorically – as green turtles from Coralie, a turtle harvesting site within the Turks and Caicos Islands, illustrate...
(10/2008) Globally, nearly all sawfish species are declining largely due to coastal habitat threats and over-fishing, but dwindling northern populations of smalltooth sawfish in the Atlantic may get a helping hand...
(09/2008) Florida Butterfly Monitoring Network researchers and citizen scientists document the presence of local butterfly species and their numbers so that scientists and conservationists...
(07/2008) The Butterfly Conservation Initiative was created in 2001 to work with federal and state organizations to aid in the conservation of threatened, endangered and vulnerable North American butterflies and the habitats that sustain them...
(07/2008) Time is slowing down—way down—for a select collection of DNA specimens at the Florida Museum of Natural History. They are housed in a double-walled cryogenic freezer at minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 320.8 degrees Fahrenheit)...
(01/2008) Scientists at the Florida Museum of Natural History are fine-tuning conservation knowledge about endangered Florida panthers by studying their bones and pelts. Our researchers recently concluded...
(01/2008) A Florida Museum of Natural History herpetologist searching for scientific causes of the so-far-unexplained giant hellbender salamander decline in the U.S. said that we can rule out flooding in many habitats, but that both illegal and scientific collecting of the species may...
(10/2007) It’s a mammoth job, setting out to document all the butterflies of South America’s tropical Andean cordillera...But Florida Museum of Natural History butterfly researcher Keith Willmott and his colleagues are relishing the task...
(09/2007) Homeowners and property managers have grown weary of green iguanas eating shrubs and damaging foundations and seawalls with subterranean nests and tunnels. The 3- to 5-foot-long lizards also create human health risks by defecating...
(07/2007) Gustav Paulay, a curator of invertebrate zoology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, is participating in several large-scale marine biodiversity surveys to find and document as many existing invertebrate species as possible, before they disappear forever...
(05/2007) The Herbarium at the Florida Museum of Natural History is run jointly by the Museum and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Including the associated fossil plant collection, it houses about 500,000 vascular plants, moss and lichen...
(05/2005) Imagine walking into a towering cathedral draped with million-faceted curtains of orange-gold and black, shimmering in the morning sunlight. Then these incredible living tapestries take flight, with a soft rustle from countless wings sweeping the air...
(03/2005) Four hurricanes visited Florida in 2004: Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne. Charley crossed the southern peninsula from southwest to northeast. Frances crossed the central peninsula from southeast to northwest...
(01/2005) The Florida Program for Shark Research, directed by the Florida Museum of Natural History’s George H. Burgess, is one of four such shark research programs comprising the National Shark Research Consortium...
(09/2004) The discovery that many Caribbean corals are only distantly related to their counterparts in the Pacific Ocean makes the threats of pollution and global warming trends even more serious...
(08/2004) Drawn by turquoise waters and sun-drenched white sand beaches, hoards of tourists annually flock to Bahia Honda State Park, a small 524-acre island in the Lower Florida Keys...
(04/2004) Over the past few years, the Florida Museum of Natural History research on local birds has taken a giant leap forward through cooperative relationships with some of Florida's more than 200 wildlife rehabilitation clinics...
(02/2004) The National Science Foundation has awarded the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida and four other institutions $4.7 million to discover and describe all catfish species worldwide...