KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum

Division Highlight: KU Archaeology🏺 The KU Archaeology Division cares for nearly 3 million artifacts, making it one of the largest collections of prehistoric and historic materials in Kansas. Through research and stewardship, the team preserves and shares the region's rich cultural heritage.

A remarkable fossil discovery by a team of researchers, including @jgsaulsbury.bsky.social, postdoctoral researcher at the @universityofkansas.bsky.social Biodiversity Institute | Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, is reshaping what we know about flowering plants. 🌸

Celebrate the Fourth of July with a little discovery! 🇺🇸 The KU Natural History Museum will be open Saturday, July 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Stop by and spend part of your holiday exploring the wonders of the natural world. 🦖🦋🦬 Plus, try one of our Discovery Guides or our new Panorama Puzzle!

Author and Kansas native Melanie Bonner Thomas recently visited the museum, where she once worked as a KU student. Her family has deep ties to KU paleontology, so the best part was seeing her books on the shelves of our gift shop. ❤️📚🦖

🌿🪨 #PaleoBotanyWeek Expanded character sampling inspired by a new Cretaceous conifer seed cone from California: importance of morphology in resolving relationships among the Cupressaceae by @kpfeiler.bsky.social et al. 👉 doi.org/q76b @kunhm.bsky.social @ku-eeb.bsky.social #PlantEvolution

It’s official ✨ Panorama Puzzle: Amazing Adaptations ✨ is now available! Solve the mystery by searching for mustelids (members of the Weasel family) in this free museum activity. To check out the puzzle stop by the front desk during your next visit to the museum!

Congratulations to Dr. Fernando Machado-Stredel for winning the AOS 2026 Florence Merriam Bailey Award recognizing an outstanding article published in an AOS journal by an early-career AOS member. americanornithology.org/aos-announce... Paper: doi.org/10.1093/orni... #AOSAwards

We're only ONE WEEK away from KU's biggest annual day of giving, One Day One KU. This year, we're focusing on two important causes: 1. Supporting our Visitor Experience student hourly positions 2. Ensuring the care and maintenance of our live exhibits Donate or learn more here » rockcha.lk/sn5

Student Spotlight! 🌟 Check out the latest article featuing KU Ichthyology graduate student @anoplogaster.bsky.social's research on the evolution of anglerfishes' lures. His study, in collaboration with Matthew Davis revealed that these lures serve a dual purpose: attracting both food and mates.

‼️NEW ANGLERFISH PAPER! 🐟🎣 So excited to share the final part of my Master’s research! We explore the bizarre tacklebox of anglerfish lures and show how these fishes evolved different ways to attract prey and maybe even mates in the deep sea. 🧪🦑🌊🦇🦀 Open access paper link: doi.org/10.1643/i202...

❄️ Closure Notice ❄️ Due to inclement weather, the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum will be closed on Saturday, January 24, and Sunday, January 25. Please check our website or social media channels for updates regarding reopening. Stay safe and warm!

Hey, KU students — we’re hiring! 😎 We’re looking for a Visitor Experience Assistant to help create positive, memorable, and engaging experiences for visitors at the KU Natural History Museum. Ready to apply or learn more? ➡️ rockcha.lk/dy3a

Welcome back, Jayhawks! Our team at the Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum is wishing you a fantastic start to the spring semester! #KUNHM #rockchalk ❤️💙

Hey KU students — we’re hiring! 🐍 Join us as a Herpetology Curatorial Assistant and help organize, prepare, and catalog specimens in the KU Herpetology Collection. Must be able to work 4 hrs/week & be comfortable handling fluid-preserved amphibians and reptiles. Learn more & apply ➡️ rockcha.lk/nzq

It’s time for ✨Prepapalooza✨! Mammalogy vs. Ornithology (plus Entomology 🪲) in a 3-day race to prep specimens. These collections are our global record of life on Earth & are essential for discovery and understanding change over time. Vote your fave: 🐦 🐭 🪲

New fossils of Acrochordus (Serpentes, Caenophidia) from the Middle Miocene of Kutch, western India: quantitative taxonomic evaluation & palaeoclimatic insights onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #PapersinPalaeontology

Lock in our 2025 membership rates today! 🔒 Prices increase January 1, 2026—join now to save and enjoy: 🔹 Free admission to the KU Natural History Museum 🔹 Access to exclusive members-only events 🔹 ASTC Travel Passport 🔹 10% off at the museum gift shop 🔹 …and more! Join today! ➡️ rockcha.lk/1d1353

Hey undergrads—want to go on a research adventure? Join KU Entomology’s @vhgonza.bsky.social on a NSF-funded project studying plant–pollinator interactions in Colombia! 🇨🇴🌿 🗓️ June 1–July 25, 2026 @kubiology.bsky.social Apply now ➡️ rockcha.lk/kwv

In the Panorama, fall foliage never goes out of season. 🍂 Missing our iconic exhibit? We are too. But its temporary closure will be worth the wait! In just a few more months, the gallery will reopen with a new climate-control system, upgraded lighting, and new glass panes.

Once thought extinct, the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) made an incredible comeback after being rediscovered in 1981. KU Mammalogy holds hundreds of specimens—some from the 1800s—that still drive conservation research. See their story on our 5th floor!

🐝 Love insects? Join our team! We're hiring 4 Student Research Assistants to work with the Snow Entomological Collection. ✅ Min. 10 hrs/week ✅ Detail-oriented ✅ Bio interest & Excel skills a plus! Apply now ⬇️ rockcha.lk/yiy

Only a few spots left for our members-only tour at the McGregor Herbarium! 🌿 Explore how KU Botany staff and volunteers prepare plant, lichen & fungus specimens and learn about grassland biodiversity. Not a member yet? Click the link to join & get the event details ➡️ rockcha.lk/i11

Rate your hometown dinosaur! 📝 Join the Lawrence Reviewed project on #NationalFossilDay and tell us what you think about Silvisaurus condrayi, Kansas’s official state land fossil! @kulibraries.bsky.social 📍Dyche Hall, 3rd Floor 🗓️ Oct 15 | ⏰ 10AM–12PM ➡️ rockcha.lk/pjs

Thanks to the KU Office of Research for the spotlight! Happy to be part of the @kunhm.bsky.social and continue contributing to preserving and digitizing the collections 🩵. #KUEntomology #PostdocAppreciationWeek #KUSEMC ➡️ research.ku.edu/news/article...

Staff Spotlight 🌟 Learn how Samanta Orellana, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the BI/NHM is expanding global access to insect biodiversity! Learn More ⬇️ research.ku.edu/news/article...

We had the best time celebrating Kansas biodiversity this past weekend at the Kansas State Fair! 🌻🐸🐝🦅#KUForKansas

🎉 Join our team! 🎉 We are seeking applications for a Student Public Education Assistant. This student hourly position will help assist in education programs for school groups visiting the museum and provide support for program development. To apply or learn more, click the link ⬇️ rockcha.lk/avx

Join us in welcoming our new cohort of grad students & BioGEM scholars to the KU Biodiversity Institute! 🎉 They’ll be diving into collection-based research across several of our divisions while exploring biodiversity science and gaining hands-on research experience. Welcome all!

We’re so honored to place in 3 of 6 categories at this year’s Best of Lawrence! 🏆 Huge thanks to everyone who voted—your support means everything! ❤️ 🥇 Community Landmark 🥈 Place to Take an Out-of-Towner 🥉 Best Gift Shop

Our new study on cellophane bees and their cold tolerance news.ku.edu/news/article...

Exciting news from KU Ichthyology! 📣🐟 Research Affiliate Gloria Arratia, a global catfish expert, edited & contributed to the recently published volume "Catfishes: A Highly Diversified Group". 📸: Hypancistrus zebra by Leandro Sousa @kunewsservice.bsky.social ➡️ 🔗 tr.ee/hdBog8tMGc

Andrés a PhD candidate in @ku-eeb.bsky.social and @kunhm.bsky.social studying the diversity and ecology of neotropical bees! Check out his recent project on outreach opportunities with bee collections in Columbia! nhcm.pensoft.net/article/1575...

🦴 This #FossilFriday, we're celebrating our Vertebrate Paleontolgoy team’s 3-week dig in Turkey! From late Paleocene to middle Eocene sites, they uncovered fossils from a unique island ecosystem—including a rare embrithopod jaw fragment! Way to go KU crew + collaborators!

🎉 Record-Breaking Month! 🎉 A BIG thank you to the 4,245 visitors who explored the KU Natural History Museum in July — our highest monthly attendance ever! 🐝🦖🦅We’re thrilled to share Earth’s incredible biodiversity with so many curious minds!

Summer just got a whole lot cooler. 🌻❄️ Sunflower Summer has been extended through August 8 — which means there’s still plenty of time for Kansas K–12 students to visit the KU Natural History Museum and 200+ other museums and attractions — for FREE! Sign up 👉 sunflowersummer.org

On Aug. 4–5, the KU Paleontological Institute will host top scientists from Yale, @harvard.edu, @floridamuseum.bsky.social & more during a workshop to rethink how fossil data is shared—making it more FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable & Reusable. 📄➡️📊 biodiversity.ku.edu/news/article...

Double the celebration! 🎉🐭🦇 Congrats to KU Mammalogy graduate students Alex Hey & Danny Ibanez on successfully defending their master’s theses! Alex studied hybrid woodrats (Neotoma) in the field using Nanopore tech; Danny explored Hipposideros bat genomics in the Solomons. PhDs up next at KU! 🎓

The future of semiconductors is in great hands! The FuSe² Team at @universityofkansas.bsky.social, including our very own outreach pros Teresa MacDonald & Eleanor Gardner, hosted high school students for a brain-inspired computing workshop! 🧠 💻 Thanks to @NSF for supporting this project.

Leaving the beautiful #CostaRica 🇨🇷 after a few wonderful weeks! I deeply appreciate the hospitality of local researchers at Universidad de Costa Rica (in San José and Guanacaste 🥰), and the support given by @kunhm.bsky.social to make this trip possible! More soon! #Anthribidae #FranzLab #Collections

Student Spotlight! 🌟 KU doctoral student Kristen Miller is turning heads with her discovery of Swaindelphys solastella, a 60-million-year-old marsupial from Texas’ Big Bend. Read more: rockcha.lk/4et 📸: KU Marketing | 🖼️: Kristen Tietjen

Explore the wonders of our natural world this July at the KU Natural History Museum. Whether you love Kansas wildlife or are curious about how the brain works, there’s something for everyone to discover! Discover all the exciting details here: ✨https://rockcha.lk/5hc ✨

Always learning so we can better serve you! ❤️ Our Visitor Services team explored labs, collection storage, the Panorama, & hidden corners of Dyche Hall to deepen their museum knowledge and share it with you! (Guess where they are in photo 2? 👀) Big thanks to Lori Schlenker for the tour! 👏

Love our Madagascar hissing cockroaches as much as our Exhibits Manager & Lead Designer Laura Mohr does? 🪳 Stop by Bugtown before BIG renovations start July 7! A new Discovery Space is coming with some familiar insect friends. Stay tuned for more updates and information! 🤎

Join us in celebrating Brian Atkinson on his tenure promotion! His dedication to fossil plant research and mentoring the next generation of paleobotanists makes him an invaluable part of our team at @kunhm.bsky.social & @kubiology.bsky.social! Congrats, Brian! 🎉

We're hiring! 🎉 The KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum is seeking applications for a full-time Museum Education Coordinator. Application reviews begin Monday, June 9, 2025. To apply or learn more about each job, click the link ➡️ rockcha.lk/xvx

Happy #InternationalDayForBiodiversity! 🌍 Meet some of the incredible staff & students at KU’s Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum. Together, they’re advancing global research to understand past and present life on Earth—and shape a brighter future. 🧬🦎🔬🐝

That post-graduation R & R hits different. 🐍🛀 Come find your zen at the KU Natural History Museum! 📸: Laura Mohr

Happy #WorldBeeDay2025! 🐝 Did you know that the KU Entomology collection of bees is one of the largest in the world? Thanks to the extensive fieldwork of late entomologist Charles D. Michener, our bee collection exceeds 500,000 and is continuously used by bee specialists in all parts of the world.

New open access paper out with Tom Baumiller and Jim Sprinkle in Journal of Paleontology! New fossil crinoids from Texas, including a very large and weird new genus of feather star: doi.org/10.1017/jpa....

We're so proud to have James Saulsbury, Postdoctoral Researcher in Invertebrate Paleontology, as part of our team! He is using computational methods to understand how living things adapt to changes in their environments. Watch his interview below. ⬇️