Welcome to the Department of Museum Research and Collections!
We oversee the management and curation of the Alabama Museum of Natural History collections and develop interdisciplinary research programs focusing on museum-based research. An increasing portion our collections can be found in the online database Arctos. Browse this site to learn more about who we are and what we do.
The evolutionary history of hermit crabs (Paguroidea) has been unraveling over the last 15 years. While claws were mainly reported before then, dozens of species based on millimeter-sized carapaces have been discovered and described since 2008.
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Over the last two months, two new books on parasitism in the fossil record were published as part of the Topics in Geobiology series. The last one appeared online on 1 January 2022.
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Over the last decade, parasites in the marine fossil record have been increasingly studied. The scientific community has shown that part of the lack of knowledge about marine parasites in deep time is simply due to a lack of research.
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The remains of a 70-million-year-old carnivorous lobster have been found in Alabama, and the fossil is so well preserved it resembles well-cooked bacon.
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This story is part 11 of the AL.com series “Ancient Alabama,” examining the natural forces that made Alabama what it is over the past 500 million years, and how those forces still shape the state today.
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This story is part 10 of the AL.com series “Ancient Alabama,” examining the natural forces that made Alabama what it is over the past 500 million years, and how those forces still shape the state today.
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Bama Bug Fest will return in-person to celebrate the diversity and benefits of arthropods at the Alabama Museum of Natural History on April 9. What hatched as a small nature-themed museum event a few years ago has metamorphosed into the Bama Bug Fest, a community celebration of “bugs.”
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On Saturday, March 26, a class field trip was scheduled for students enrolled in the undergraduate Paleontology & Society course offered through the selective Blount Scholars Program at the University of Alabama. The classic fossil locality Harrell Station Paleontological Site in Dallas County was the destination of this trip.
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Bama Bug Fest is returning to an in-person event this year on April 9, 2022 at a NEW location: the Alabama Museum of Natural History!
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