Today is Giving Tuesday, which is a day set aside to empower people and organizations to transform their communities and the world! If you’d like to participate this year, we’d like to let you know about the ways you can help support the University of Alabama Museums’ Department of Research and Collections!
Collections News
Behind Glass in Russia, 1992 An Archaeologist’s Journal
Ian W. Brown, Professor Emeritus at the University of Alabama and Emeritus Curator of Gulf Coast Archaeology at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, has written a book titled Behind Glass in Russia, 1992: An Archaeologist’s Journal!
New Award Honors Avocational Paleontologist in Alabama
Alabama employs about a dozen professional paleontologists, but there are many more people who search and study fossils as a hobby. These avocational or amateur paleontologists uncover a vast amount of knowledge about Alabama’s prehistory each year.
Virtual National Fossil Day
This year, the Alabama Museum of Natural History is celebrating National Fossil Day online! On October 14, 2020, we will be hosting free livestream broadcasts about Paleontology, Paleozoic Oceans, and a special presentation about the Alabama Avocational Paleontologist Award.
Common Insects of Texas and Surrounding States: A Field Guide
In this vividly illustrated field guide, John Abbott and Kendra Abbott use their combined fifty-six years of fieldwork to present the most comprehensive and authoritative guide to Texas’s insects.
Towards Global Volunteer Monitoring of Odonate Abundance
Provocative headlines such as “Insectaggedon,” “Insect Apocalypse,” and “The Great Insect Dying” have directed the world’s attention to a purported widespread decline of insects and elicited calls for immediate action
Dr. Kocot Awarded NSF Grant to Digitize ALMNH Invertebrate Zoology Collection
Dr. Kocot received a grant as part of a large collaborative project entitled “Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: documenting marine biodiversity through Digitization of Invertebrate collections (DigIn).” This project is led by Dr. Regina Wetzer (Los Angeles County Museum); and the UA share is $33,235; project total: $1,776,008).
UA Part of National Project to Study Dragonfly, Damselfly Evolution
An international team of researchers that includes The University of Alabama are collecting and analyzing data for the insect order Odonata that contains dragonflies and damselflies to share through an online database available to all researchers.
Systematics and convergent evolution of multiple reef-associated Jurassic and Cretaceous crabs (Decapoda, Brachyura)
We studied multiple true crabs (Brachyura) from primarily sponge and coral reefs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (201 to 66 million years ago). Both environments were important habitats for the evolution and biodiversity of crabs during the Late Jurassic epoch (164 to 145 million years ago).
New Holotype of Fossil Shark for Paleontology Collection
On June 16, paleontologists published a scientific article describing a new fossil angel shark genus and species named Cretasquatina americana. Among those paleontologists is former University of Alabama curator of paleontology Dana Ehret. The team used two specimens from the paleontology collection of UA Museums’ Department of Museum Research and Collections.