Watch an ALL-NEW episode of Discovering Alabama tonight at 9 PM on Alabama Public Television to learn about the fossil record in Alabama, which goes back millions of years and includes dinosaurs, giant whales, and the evolution of the shark.
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Dr. Adiel Klompmaker (The University of Alabama Museums‘ Curator of Paleontology) was a guest on Linnean Podcast to discuss octopuses drilling through time! Octopoda appear to be from another planet with their entirely unrelatable anatomy and way of being, yet, we are uncontrollably drawn to them.
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Most of the trillions from May’s Brood X swarm will arise and fly and feed — and be fed on — in their monthlong above-ground life along the East Coast, from North Carolina to Indiana to New Jersey, possibly in parts of Georgia.
On March 17, 2021, Dr. John Abbott (Director of Museum Research & Collections) was interviewed by WBRC to discuss cicadas!
With their jewel-toned bodies and glass-like wings, dragonflies have a story to tell scientists that starts with the origins of flight, millions of years ago, and continues to the health of freshwater habitats today.
Read More from Alabama entomologist part of international dragonfly database project
In the coming months, one of the largest broods of periodical cicadas to emerge in U.S. history will arise after a 17-year period underground. Dr. John Abbott, an entomologist and the director of research and collections for University of Alabama Museums who has studied cicadas since childhood, says they’re not a sign of the apocalypse. READ MORE
Tiny holes in three fossil clams reveal that by 75 million years ago, ancient octopuses were deviously drilling into their prey. The find pushes evidence of this behavior back 25 million years, scientists reported in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society last month.
Read More from Predatory octopuses were drilling into clamshells at least 75 million years ago
To celebrate its 200th anniversary of statehood, the State of Alabama created the Alabama Bicentennial Park in the heart of historic Montgomery and commissioned artist Caleb O’Connor to design a series of sixteen sculptural works depicting the state’s full history, from fossils to moon rockets.
Maybe you’ve seen the headlines: soon, hundreds of millions of cicadas will emerge after 17 years of living underground and swarm cities all over the eastern United States.
Read More from No, Tuscaloosa Isn’t Going to Be Overrun With Cicadas…Yet
Millions of cicadas are about to swarm the East Coast. Don’t panic! It’s totally normal. These cicadas, known as periodical cicadas, have been 6 feet underground for 17 years. From June to August, they will come above ground in waves in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.
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