Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida
Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records & photos.
Shown: African Jewelfish (Hemichromis letourneuxi), non-indigenous to Florida's freshwaters
🔗 Info & browse:
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discov…
ALT Two side-profile views of a fish species. The top fish has a red head and underbelly, a yellowish-brown body with light spots, a dark spot on its flank, and red-tipped dorsal and caudal fins. The bottom fish has a darker brown body with iridescent blue spots and markings, a similar dark flank spot, and translucent fins with reddish-blue highlights.
Spooky natural history 🧟 Dead man’s fingers (Xylaria polymorpha)
Often bent and swollen, as if afflicted with arthritis, these fungal growths bear an uncanny resemblance to their namesake where they grow at the base of dead and dying plants. Read more: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/scienc…
ALT a cluster of what looks like dark, stubby dried roots are set next to an aged paper label with worn text that says University of Florida and some blurry notes
Museum Collections 🐚 Cone Shells
These predatory sea snails subdue their prey with a hollow, venom-filled tooth. The venom interferes with nerve impulses, paralyzing prey in various ways. 🎧 Listen to more with John Slapcinsky: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-ye…
ALT eight brown and white cone shaped snail shells are arranged in a ring around one smaller shell in the center flat on a white background
Fossil History 🦣 Exploring north Florida rivers for ice age tusks [video]
Look back to the Aucilla River in northwest Florida where researchers like David Webb, Andy Hemmings and Joe Latvis searched underwater for mammoth and mastodon fossils.
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discov…
🦣🦣🦣
#SpookyScience 😨 Winter worm summer grass
Ancient texts refer to a shape-shifting organism that lives out the winter as a worm and transforms into a plant during the summer. The horrifying answer might be in these cicadas: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discov…
ALT several husks of young cicada insects covered in pale webbing are sprouting large fungal formations like a tassel from their head
Roger Portell was recognized with the Paleontological Society's Pojeta Award as he headed into retirement this month.
Roger began working at the Florida Museum 47 years ago after a career pivot to follow his passion for fossils and fieldwork. Read more: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/scienc…
ALT Two men in hard hats and safety gear discuss a rock sample by the back of a white pickup truck.
ALT A man stands in a storage room, holding a specimen from one of many open drawers filled with shells.
ALT A person in a high-visibility vest in the far distance walks across a sandy construction site in front of a large excavated cliff face.
ALT A man in a safety vest and beanie stands atop a rocky, eroded ledge of sandy terrain.
Online Exhibit 🦍 Gorillas in the Mist
Dian Fossey's Legacy
Explore Dian Fossey’s Mountain Gorilla research through the lens of Bob Campbell’s photographs: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibi…
Featured photo courtesy of the George A. Smathers Libraries @UF
ALT vintage photo of a person with a braid of dark hair, wearing a dark hoodie and binoculars on a strap over their shoulder seems to be sitting among low growing plants and holding a notebook and pencil, watching two gorillas leaning on a fallen tree trunk watching her back, surrounded by forest
Haunting music 👻 Spooky natural history
Ghost pipes have no chlorophyll, and they don’t photosynthesize. Instead, they indirectly steal nutrients from other plants by tapping into a massive subterranean network of fungi. Read more: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/scienc…
📷: Liz West, CC BY
ALT a cluster of white stalks rise from mulchy dead leaves and each are topped by a downward drooping white flower trumpet
Last call! We're hiring 🐾 Assistant Curator of Environmental Archaeology
🏛️📌 Apply by Oct. 16, 2026
This is a 12-month, tenure-track position 👇
🔸 Full info: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept…
🔸 About the Department of Natural History at the Florida Museum: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept…
ALT Four people work in a storage room filled with shelves of boxes, using laptops and lamps to examine specimens.
ALT A woman in a striped shirt holds a fragment of pottery while standing in a storage area with shelves of archival boxes.
ALT An adult and two students examine seashells and small fossils in plastic bins in a classroom with educational posters on the walls.
ALT A person wearing a cap sits on a beach, holding a sieve over a bucket with other buckets and nets on the sand.
Museum Collections 🌾 Grass pinks
Florida is home to over 100 native orchid species, many of which are endangered or threatened. More from UF/IFAS: gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.…
Herbarium feature:
Species: Calopogon multiflorus
Specimen: # FLAS 176671
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/herbar…
ALT Herbarium specimen of two long stems with small root clusters at the base and small tufts of flowers at the tops that have been pressed and carefully attached to a white sheet with an information label at the bottom and a FLAS Herbarium stamp near the top.
Under the Sea 🦪🌊 Florida Pleistocene Fossils
Alongside fossils, this exhibit painting helps bring to life the marine environments around Florida during the Pleistocene.
🗝️ Check out the art + key, species list and more fossils from our collections:
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibi…
ALT a painting of an underwater scene near the sandy floor that is covered with shells, crabs, urchins and sea grass while overhead swims fish, turtles, manatees and a seal, and a numbered key to the illustration positioned below it
ALT A case in a museum exhibit has dozens of shells and other marine fossils carefully mounted on a wall next to a painting of an underwater scene and above an information sign with a lot of text and a key to the animals in the painting
ALT a very shiny pail sea snail shell is somewhat almond shaped and has a number written on the inner lip
Museum Collections 🐊 American alligator
Alligator mississippiensis is an incredibly adaptable species that has lived for millions of years with little morphologic change.
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florid…
Featured fossil:
Species: Alligator mississippiensis
Specimen: UF/VP # 69930
ALT three views of a section of fossil jaw bone with several cone shaped teeth in place and a numerous empty sockets is shown from three angles
Mammoth Moves 🦣 During our exhibit building closure, our exhibit team and paleontologists temporarily moved our iconic mammoth to replace the flooring – no small feet, um, feat!
🦣 Blog + photos: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibi…
📢 Reopening our exhibits building on Nov. 23, 2026!
ALT a person on a ladder is using large calipers to measure the hip width of a large mammoth skeleton in a museum gallery
ALT an old blurry and poorly lit vintage shot of two people on a scissor lift carefully attaching a skull to what looks like a large mammoth skeleton in a work room
ALT a somewhat aged photo of a group of 15 people posed in a museum lobby in front of a mammoth skeleton under big windows
ALT a mammoth skeleton is looming over a museum gallery with blue walls and a blue sky themed ceiling decoration cast in diffused sunlight from high windows
#SpookySeason Science 🐠 Online Exhibit
Ichthyologists use two main techniques to prepare skeletons from specimens of all shapes and sizes without losing their skeletal positions:
Inner Beauty 🩻 Skeletons Revealed from the Museum’s Fish Collection
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibi…
ALT a large wedge-shaped fish skeleton is highlighted in light blue in high detail against a black background. It has a flat profile with a heavy jaw and a very short body that angles up to a short tail high in the back
Spooky natural history 😱 Horrific hunter
Measuring up to 2 inches long, cicada killer wasps evolved their disturbingly large proportions to immobilize cicadas so their young can slowly eat them alive. Read: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/scienc…
📷: Alejandro Santillana, Insects Unlocked, CC0
ALT a detailed close-up of a large dead wasp curled up on its side with heavy abdomen with a sharp stinger
Museum Resource 🐟 Fishes in the Fresh Waters of Florida
Explore our state's freshwater fish species, including collection records, photos and map.
Shown: Gulf Darter (Etheostoma swaini), indigenous to Florida's freshwaters
🔗 More info & browse:
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discov…
ALT two specimens of small, elongated fishes with lobed fins and dark gray-brown mottled coloring on their bodies. There are bright orange and soft blue stripes on their larger fins and small patches of orange along their bellies
Museum Resource 🐍 Florida Snake ID Guide
Easy visual ID and searchable tool for learning about our state's snakes including habitat, range, diet & lookalikes.
Featured: Plain-bellied Watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster)
Snake profile:
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florid…
NON-VENOMOUS
Museum Collections 🎭 Wooden Figurine
"One of the reasons you can tell he is wearing a mask is the pair of narrow lines on either side of the head. We think this is a cord for attaching the headdress." 🎧 Listen to more with archaeologist Bill Marquardt: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-ye…
ALT a rough wooden statue seems to show a figure kneeling with is hands on his knees and either wearing a large cat-like headdress or representing a cat-like personality
Museum Collections 🧵 Seminole Dolls
The Seminole and Miccosukee doll collection at the Florida Museum covers the 1930s to early 2000s:
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sflarc…
Feature: Explore some of the details like faces, jewelry and hairstyles represented.
floridamuseum.ufl.edu/sflarc…
ALT close up of a selection of dolls with elaborate and detailed patchwork clothing and round heads made of some kind of rough fiber material
#ICYMI Archaeologists have long debated how pottery from Native Americans of the Mississippian culture in what is now the Southeast U.S. wound up in Tampa Bay, FL. The answer: a secretive guild of migrant pottery artisans.
Story: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/scienc…
ALT Three white trays filled with microscope slides. One slide is tilted up, labeled 'NW-1310' with a specimen.
ALT A hand holding a small, weathered stone star-shaped object against a backdrop of fragmented rock textures.
ALT eight pieces of irregular, ancient pottery are lined up in two rows next to glass slides with a thin section of brown substance that might be a sample cut from the potsherds