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.
From June 16-21, Dr. John Abbott (Director of The University of Alabama Museum’s Research and Collections) and Kendra Abbott (Alabama Museum of Natural History‘s Research and Outreach Coordinator) traveled to Colombia to conduct a Dragonfly ID and Genetics Workshop, as part of the GEODE research project.
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Squat lobsters of the Galatheoidea superfamily live in all oceans today, from shallow waters to depths of thousands of meters, and from hot hydrothermal vents to cold waters in the polar regions. The number of extant species is currently ~1,300 species, many of which are truly colorful.
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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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When trying to study changes in insect populations, researchers are hindered by one big problem: We don’t know as much about bugs as we need to. “We know almost nothing,” said Kendra Abbott, entomologist and museums research and outreach coordinator at the University of Alabama.
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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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Alabama has an incredibly rich fossil record, with most geological periods since the start of the Phanerozoic about 540 million years ago represented on the surface. When rocks and sediments are exposed, fossils can often be found.
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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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