Florida Museum of Natural History facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Florida Museum of Natural History

Lua error in Module:Location_map at line 420: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
Established	1891
Location	3215 Hull Rd., Gainesville, Florida
Type	Natural history
Visitors	200,000 est. 2007
Public transit access	Family Housing Stop Route 20 & 21, RTS

The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state museum for natural history. It's located at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The museum has two main buildings: Powell Hall and Dickinson Hall. Powell Hall is where you'll find most of the public exhibits. Dickinson Hall is mainly for research and storing millions of objects.

The museum shares its Cultural Plaza with other cool places. These include the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art and the Curtis M. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The museum's exhibits show off Florida's plants, animals, fossils, and ancient people. Most exhibits are free to visit. However, you need a ticket for the Butterfly Rainforest and some special traveling shows.

The museum's collections started being used for teaching way back in the 1800s. They moved to the University of Florida campus in 1906. In 1917, the Florida government officially made it the state's natural history museum. Its name was changed in 1988 to the Florida Museum of Natural History. This helped people know it was different from Florida State University.

What the Museum Does

The Florida Museum of Natural History has an important job. It does scientific research to help us understand nature. It also helps us appreciate human history and culture. This is all part of its official role for the state of Florida.

Museum Buildings

Over its 100 years, the Florida Museum of Natural History has been in several buildings. Today, it has three main spots on campus and one research center away from the main campus.

Dickinson Hall

Dickinson Hall opened in 1971. It's home to more than 25 million objects! These include collections of fish, fossils, plants, reptiles, shells, and mammals. It also has items from different cultures and historical periods. Scientists here study everything from ancient human history to modern DNA.

Powell Hall

Powell Hall was built in 1995. It's in the University of Florida Cultural Plaza. This building, along with the McGuire Center, is where you'll find the main exhibits and public programs. Money for Powell Hall came from generous donations and state funds.

Randell Research Center

In 1996, the museum received a special gift. It was 53 acres of land in Lee County, Florida. This land is part of an important ancient site called the Pineland Site Complex. The museum now runs it as the Randell Research Center. It's a place for research and education about Florida's past.

In 2008, the center planted over 800 native trees. These trees replaced ones lost during hurricanes in 2004.

McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity

In 2000, a large gift helped create the William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Center. This center is all about Lepidoptera, which are butterflies and moths. It's one of the biggest gifts ever given for insect research! The center opened in 2004.

The McGuire Center holds over 10 million butterfly and moth specimens. This makes it one of the largest collections in the world. It even has specimens of extinct species. The center also has the living Butterfly Rainforest. Plus, it has 39,000 square feet of research labs and collection space.

Scientists at the center study things like genetics and how to protect endangered species. You can even see some of their labs through glass panels!

Public Exhibits

The museum has many exciting exhibits for visitors.

Butterfly Rainforest

The Butterfly Rainforest is a huge, enclosed outdoor area. It's filled with live butterflies and moths! You can find it at the McGuire Center, right next to Powell Hall. At any time, there are about 1,000 butterflies from over 50 different species flying around.

The butterflies come from all over the world. They arrive as chrysalises and are released into the exhibit once they become adults. You can even watch live butterfly releases every weekday and on weekends.

Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life & Land

This amazing exhibit in Powell Hall cost $2.5 million to create. It's 5,000 square feet and shows Florida's history through five different time periods. You'll walk through millions of years, starting when Florida was underwater.

You'll see Florida's first land animals and how grasslands grew. You'll also learn about the land bridge that connected North and South America. The exhibit ends with the first humans arriving in Florida. More than 90% of the 500 fossils here are real! Many were found close to Gainesville.

At the entrance, you'll see six huge fossil shark jaws. Some are 9 feet tall! The exhibit shows how life changed after big extinction events. You'll see ancient whales, pig-like mammals, and a rhinoceros fighting saber-toothed cats. There's also a 15-foot-tall sloth and a jaguar chasing a peccary. The exhibit also features cool artwork, like a 9-foot-tall steel sculpture of an extinct Terror Bird.

South Florida People & Environments

This exhibit in Powell Hall has ten galleries. They offer different experiences, including 3D scenes. You'll feel like you're stepping back in time!

You enter through a re-created Calusa fishing village from 500 years ago. You'll see a boy carrying a shark and a view of the Gulf of Mexico. Large glass panels show art and environments from ancient Southwest Florida.

Mangrove Boardwalk Gallery

You can walk on a wooden boardwalk through a full-size mangrove forest. You'll see mangrove trees, mudflats, and pretend water. Sounds of insects, birds, and water make it feel real. A huge mural shows distant islands and bird nesting areas.

Natural Habitats Center

This gallery teaches you about the different environments in South Florida.

Underwater Walk-through

This gallery has a scene 12 times larger than real life! You'll explore tiny organisms that support the estuary. Huge sculptures of plants, fish, and other creatures surround you. Shimmering lights make it feel like you're underwater.

Fishing Heritage Gallery

This gallery tells the story of 6,000 years of fishing. It shows how the Calusa people and those before them fished. You'll learn about different fishing tools and boats. You'll also see how the Calusa built large canals. Interactive stations show how they made nets. Artifacts include 1,000-year-old fishing nets and ancient wooden canoe paddles.

Calusa Mound and Village

This gallery has a large window looking out onto an outdoor mound. Sculptures of a Calusa family stand next to a palm-thatched house. It's like looking into the past! Inside, you'll learn about mounds and Calusa towns. An interactive model shows how archaeologists study mounds.

Calusa Leader's House

Step inside a palm-thatched building! You'll find yourself in a Calusa leader's house during a ceremony. Soft lights and singing sounds add to the drama. Six human sculptures show a scene from 1564. You'll learn about Calusa politics and beliefs. Artifacts include shell ornaments and objects traded from far away.

South Florida's Native American Legacy Gallery

This gallery displays rare and interesting objects. These include a 1,000-year-old carved wooden panel with a painting of an ivory-billed woodpecker. There's also a wooden panel with an alligator, and wooden figures of animals and humans. You'll see ornaments made from precious metals. Panels explain important sites in South Florida.

Today's South Florida Indian People

This gallery is about the Seminole and Miccosukee people who live in South Florida today. You'll learn about their history and traditions. Display cases show patchwork clothing, woodwork, baskets, and silverwork.

Northwest Florida: Waterways & Wildlife

This area lets you travel through different habitats in the Florida panhandle.

First, you'll see a hammock forest. It has a detailed, 25-foot-high mural with 50 different plants and animals.

The cave exhibit shows the inside of a northwest Florida cave. It's like the ones in Marianna Caverns State Park. You'll learn about minerals, water, cave life, and fossils.

The pitcher plant bog exhibit shows communities of these unique plants. These bogs have wet, acidic soil and carnivorous plants. There's also a larger-than-life exhibit of pitcher plants.

The river scene shows the Apalachicola River 700 years ago. A 360-degree mural shows the forest. There's also a Native American trading scene from around 1300 AD. You'll see fossils of extinct animals found in these rivers.

The tidal marsh exhibit explains why this ecosystem is important. It shows how plants and animals adapt to changing water levels.

A coastal diorama shows dune habitats from barrier islands. You'll see an osprey flying, bird nests, and a cross-section of a sea turtle nest. You'll also hear coastal water sounds.

The last exhibit in this section shows how different sea creatures live in layers in the tidal zone. Jars with preserved fish specimens show the many types of fish in this habitat.

Florida Wildflower and Butterfly Garden

This garden is next to the McGuire Center. It was created with funds from Florida's wildflower license plate. It has a display showing the life cycles of four butterflies. It also shows how the plants they use change through the seasons.

Changing Gallery

The Changing Gallery is a 5,000 square foot hall in Powell Hall. It hosts special traveling exhibits. Past exhibits have included Megalodon, Chocolate, and Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex.

As of February 2019, exhibits included Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs and Whale People: Protectors of the Sea.

Research Collections

The museum has huge collections used for scientific research. Most are in Dickinson Hall, except for the butterfly and moth collection.

Lepidoptera

This collection is housed at the McGuire Center. It's a newer department, but its research is very important.

Mammalogy

The mammal collection at Dickinson Hall has grown a lot since 1992. It now has over 30,000 specimens! Since 2002, the museum has added collections of whales, dolphins, and manatees.

The collection mainly has skins and skulls. About 4,500 specimens are preserved in fluid. Most are small mammals like rodents and bats from the southeastern US, the Caribbean, and Latin America. A special part of the collection is the marine mammals. It includes 310 manatees, dolphins, and over 500 whales.

This collection is mainly for research. But it's also used for teaching students. Law enforcement uses it to identify endangered species. It helps scientists study what carnivores eat. It's also used for biomedical studies and wildlife dentistry.

Ichthyology

The Florida Museum of Natural History's fish collection is one of the most important in North America. It has over 197,000 cataloged groups of specimens. This means more than 2.15 million individual fish! They represent over 7,000 species.

The collection also has about 2,500 skeletons of fish. These are used to study fish bones. The main strengths of the collection are fish from the western and eastern Atlantic Ocean. It also has many reef fish and freshwater fish from the southeastern United States.

The museum's collection of sharks and rays has grown quickly. It's now an important resource for scientists worldwide. The freshwater fish collection is strongest for the southeastern United States. It also has many fish from Central and South America.

Malacology

The mollusk (shell) collection started small but has grown a lot. It now has over 30,000 species among 400,000 groups of specimens. It's one of the five largest collections in the US. It's also one of the fastest-growing.

The collection is very strong in local species. It has one of the largest collections of land and freshwater mollusks from the southeastern US. It also has huge collections from the Caribbean, Mexico, Pakistan, and Thailand.

Botany and the Florida Herbarium

The botany collection has excellent examples of Florida's plants. It also includes plants from the southeastern United States. The moss and lichen collections focus on Florida and tropical areas. The Fungal Herbarium shows Florida fungi. The wood collection has wood from all over the world. The museum's total plant collection has about half a million specimens.

Herpetology

With about 202,000 specimens, the reptile and amphibian collection is one of the largest in the US. Its skeleton collection is the 5th largest. About 3,800 new specimens are added each year.

The collection has specimens from all over the world. It has many land tortoises and lizards. It also has large numbers of sea turtles. The collection includes many crocodiles from Latin America. It also has amphibians and reptiles from Panama and Japan.

Ornithology

The bird skeleton collection has 24,500 specimens. It represents about 3,000 species. This makes it one of the largest in the world. It has grown a lot since 2002. The collection has specimens from 47 US states and 103 countries.

The bird skin collection has about 20,500 specimens. It represents at least 2,300 species. Rare items include skins of ivory-billed woodpeckers and extinct dusky seaside sparrows.

The egg collection has 10,400 sets of eggs. It represents 733 species. This makes it one of the largest in North America. It has eggs from about 90% of North American bird species. Rare eggs include those from passenger pigeons and Carolina parakeets.

The bird sound collection has 20,500 recordings. It represents about 3,000 species. This is the fourth largest in the world. The recordings are available online. It's strong in sounds from North America and Latin America.

Vertebrate Paleontology

The museum's vertebrate fossil collections have rich samples of all types of backboned animals. They are mainly from the Cenozoic Era. There are about 400,000 specimens. These collections are the most complete for studying ancient backboned animals in the southeastern United States.

History of the Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

University of Florida (UF) Collection

The UF collection has about 385,000 specimens. About 90% of this collection comes from Florida. It's especially strong in land animals from the past 25 million years in Florida. This forms the best record of ancient vertebrate life in eastern North America. Other strengths include fossils from the Caribbean islands and Central and South America.

Serious fossil hunting at the University of Florida began in 1953. Scientists have found many important fossils. They have also taught many students and written many research papers. They also helped create the Florida Paleontological Society. This group connects professional scientists with amateur fossil collectors.

Florida Geological Survey Collection

The Florida Geological Survey fossil collection started in the 1910s. It was the main source of fossil descriptions from Florida until the 1960s. In 1976, this entire collection moved to the Florida Museum of Natural History. It has about 22,000 specimens, mostly from Florida. Most are mammals, then reptiles, birds, and some amphibians and fish.

Pierce Brodkorb Collection

Professor Pierce Brodkorb built this collection. He was a world expert on fossil birds. In 1992, his family donated his collections to the museum. The fossil bird collection has about 8,500 specimens. About 85% of them are from Florida.

Archaeology

Environmental Archaeology

This program studies how humans and the environment have interacted over 14,000 years. It looks at animal, plant, and soil materials from archaeological sites. The collections are strongest in animal specimens. But they also have many plant and soil materials. Scientists here explore how people used and impacted natural resources.

Caribbean Archaeology

This collection started in 1960. It's one of the largest collections of pre-Columbian artifacts in North America. It has collections from many Caribbean islands. These include Antigua, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Each collection has detailed records.

The collection also includes artifacts from excavations in Antigua and St. Kitts. Since 1987, museum teams have done research in Antigua, the Bahamas, and other islands.

Ceramic Technology Laboratory

This lab was set up in 1977. It studies pottery from archaeological sites. Pottery is very important because it's found at most sites. The lab has tools to study the materials used to make pottery. This helps scientists learn about how pottery was made. They also learn about trade and culture change in ancient Florida and the Caribbean.

The lab has a large collection of pottery types. These are from ancient and historical periods in Florida and the southeastern US. These collections help museum scientists and visiting researchers.

Florida Archaeology

The Florida Archaeology Collection has artifacts from 12,000 years of human history in the Southeast. It focuses on Florida but also has some materials from Georgia. These items help us understand the people who lived in Florida long ago. The collections come from Central and North Florida.

The Excavated Collections include materials found using careful digging methods. These collections have information about where they were found. Field notes, maps, and photos are often available.

Here are some important sites in the Florida Archaeology Collections:

Abraham's Old Town

This site in Sumter County was a town for Black Seminoles in the early 1800s. The collection includes stone tools, pottery, glass beads, and metal pieces.

Aucilla River Prehistory Project

This collection has stone, bone, and mammoth ivory tools. It also has pottery, plant remains, and fossils from sites along the Aucilla River. You can see fossilized bones with cut marks from ancient animals.

Bolen Bluff

This site is south of Paynes Prairie. It was dug up in 1949. The collections include many stone points and tools. It also has different types of pottery from various time periods.

de Soto Survey

This project looked for early Spanish-Indian contact sites in north Florida. It found over 750 sites. Some major sites include Spanish missions like Fig Springs and Santa Fe.

McKeithen Site

This is a Weeden Island site in Columbia County. It was dug up in the late 1970s. The collection has many Weeden Island pottery pieces, including whole pots. It also has stone tools and animal remains.

Richardson Site

This was a Potano Indian village near Orange Lake. It dates from before and during the early Spanish mission period. The collections include Alachua pottery, glass beads, and animal material. It might be the site visited by Hernando de Soto.

Spanish Mission collections

Collections from Spanish mission sites are very important. The museum has large collections from 11 mission sites. These include Baptizing Spring and Fig Springs. There are also other sites linked to missions.

Tatham Mound

This mound is from the Safety Harbor culture. It's near the Withlacoochee River. It was also used when Soto arrived, as shown by Spanish artifacts from the 1500s. The collections include pottery, stone tools, and shell artifacts. Spanish items include metal beads and armor pieces.

Donated private collections

Many important collections have been donated by individuals and families. These include artifacts from all over Florida. They are valuable for exhibits and research.

Becker	Burkhardt	Haufler	Hendrix	McMullen (Osceola, Polk, Volusia Counties)
Means	Ohmes	Pearsall	Simpson	McDonald (Brevard County)

Bullen Projectile Point Typology Collection

This collection was created by archaeologist Ripley P. Bullen. He used these artifacts to make the first guide for identifying Florida projectile points. It's used as a reference for researchers and the public.

Osteological collections

These collections include human skeletons from ancient and historical sites in Florida and the Caribbean. They are used for research and teaching. Only academic and professional researchers can access them.

Historical archaeology

The historical archaeology collections have over 2 million excavated items. They are from more than 100 sites in Florida and Latin America. They include the largest collection of Spanish colonial artifacts in the country. These items are from homes, military sites, churches, and businesses from 1492 to the 1800s.

The collection also has items from non-Spanish sites from the 1700s and 1800s. These include farms, trading posts, and towns. The department also has special collections of type specimens and published specimens. These are used as references for teaching and research.

The St. Augustine Collections

These materials are from St. Augustine, Florida (1565–present). They come from 40 years of archaeological digs. They include over 1 million items of glass, metal, stone, shell, and bone. They are kept jointly by the University of Florida and the City of St. Augustine.

The Latin American Collections

Some of the earliest historical archaeology collections in the region are here. John Goggin's work in the 1940s and 1950s created a large collection from the Caribbean and Central America.

Excavations in Haiti also created large collections. These are kept at the Florida Museum of Natural History for the Haitian government.

The Historical Florida Collections

Besides St. Augustine and Latin America, these collections include materials from towns, missions, and forts in Florida.

Images for kids

• 

  A waterfall in the Butterfly Rainforest

See also

In Spanish: Museo de Historia Natural de Florida para niños