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. Try our new Collections Search Portal. Browse this site to learn more about who we are and what we do.
The traditional method of classifying the twenty-one species within the South American genus Polythore has been relying on wing color patterns and male genital ligula shape.
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Most research on predation in the marine fossil record has focused on specimens from North America and Europe.
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Ostracods are small crustaceans living in a variety of environments. They were also present in and on the ocean floor in Brazil 66 million years ago.
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Some extinct species left copious fossil remnants of their existence. Ammonites—an extinct type of cephalopod—are one such example.
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University of Alabama undergraduate student Maddy Dissinger is majoring in Biology and she is also enrolled in the Blount Scholars Program.
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This weekend is a chance to see fossil trackways, fossil invertebrates and fossil plants found in mines and other places from Alabama’s Coal Age up close and personal.
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Alabama is a global hotspot for mosasaurs. These extinct relatives of lizards were the top predators in the oceans during the late part of the Cretaceous Period.
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Drs. John Abbott and Milt Ward were awarded an IMLS Inspire! grant for $47,575 to rehouse an historically and scientifically significant beetle collection.
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Visit the Alabama Museum of Natural History on October 28, 2023 from 1:30 PM – 4:00 PM for a free National Fossil Day event!
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