Tags: Museum News

S. elongata on Finger Tip
The Fastest Jaws in Nature- the ultra-fast bite

  Dr. Doug Booher, a collection associate with the Museum's Arthropod Collection is the lead author on the paper "Functional innovation promotes diversification of form in the evolution of an ultrafast trap-jaw mechanism in ants" just published in PLOS Biology. The article is available freely from this weblink http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001031. Dr. Booher spent many an hour working…


Odum's Debut of Sunken Treasure: The Art and Science of Coral Reefs

by Christa May, GMNH Student Association President On October 18, 2024, Dr. James W. Porter and the Georgia Museum of Natural History amazed Odum with their display of tropical corals and their history. Originally, they were held in the UGA Special Collections Museum alongside rare books describing their oddity. While the books were the objects of focus, the corals provided evidence of how naturalists have captured their beauty. Now, UGA…

Drs. David and Dorinda Dallmeyer in front of a land rover in the Sahara Desert
Museum Supporter Spotlight: Why Dorinda and David Dallmeyer Support the Georgia Museum of Natural History

David and Dorinda Dallmeyer have had a lifelong love of natural history museums. During David’s childhood he lived in Chicago and took in the wonders at the Field Museum. Of particular interest for a budding geologist was Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Its life-size replica of a coal mine — complete with an elevator ride down to the coal seam — still dazzles visitors.  For Dorinda, growing up in Macon, Georgia…

An image of Richard Hoebeke on a red background holding a small log with beetles on it.
Associate Curator Richard Hoebeke Publishes North American Weevil Manual

We are excited to announce that Richard Hoebeke, Arthropod Collection Associate Curator and Collections Manager has published the manual Adventive Weevils Recorded from North America: A Review and Illustrated Manual for their Identification with colleagues James R. LaBonte and Kent E. Loeffler. While a portion of Hoebeke's current research includes taxonomic studies of beetles of the megadiverse families Staphylinidae and Curculionidae, his…
Tags: Museum News

Mary Freeman receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Fishes Council
Congratulating Dr. Mary Freeman on her Lifetime Achievement Award

On Thursday, January 23rd, Dr. Mary Freeman was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Fishes Council. Her immense contributions to the research and understanding of freshwater fish populations in the Southeast spans four decades, and her work has helped to conserve the region's natural biodiversity for generations to come. Read the Southeastern Fishes Council's official statement: "To know Dr. Mary Freeman is to know…

An image of Dr. James W. Porter standing among the GMNH's shell collection.
Grand Opening: Corals from the Georgia Museum of Natural History!

UPDATE: Due to Hurricane Helene, this opening has been rescheduled for Friday, October 18 at 10 am Join us this Friday, September 27th at 10 AM for the grand opening of Corals from the Georgia Museum of Natural History in the Odum School of Ecology foyer! The exhibition has been curated by Dr. James W Porter, Curator of Marine Invertebrates and Meigs Professor of Ecology, Emeritus. Continental breakfast will be served from 10-11 AM, and the…
Tags: Museum News

Larissa McPherson cataloging a specimen
Fall 2024- UGA MFA student, Larissa McPherson, participates in directed study with GMNH

Larissa McPherson is a Master of Fine Arts student in jewelry and metalwork at UGA. During Fall 2024 semester, she is participating in a directed study with the Georgia Museum of Natural History under the supervision of her graduate adviser, Demi Thomloudis, and GMNH collection manager, Nicole Pontzer. Her directed study with the museum is an exciting example of the creative and cross-disciplinary possibilities available at UGA. We recently…

Dr. Betsy Reitz, curator of Zooarchaeology, leads a tour for a visiting UGA class
Full Schedule of Tours at GMMH Fall 2023

The Georgia Museum of Natural History has had an active and full schedule of tours this semester! In fact, the Museum reached capacity for our Fall 2023 tour calendar and has begun scheduling tours for Spring semester 2024. Since the start of Fall semester, the Museum has hosted 22 different tour groups at both our campus gallery and our off-campus curation annex. The tours this Fall have included various school groups from elementary to high…


Newest GMNH exhibit, Birds of a Feather

The staff of the Georgia Museum of Natural History recently completed their newest public exhibit, Birds of a Feather. This exhibit highlights many of the regional and exotic birds in the Ornithology collection as well as anecdotes about birds, including migration, diversity, intelligence, and threats to birds. The exhibit is currently on display in the Odum School of Ecology lobby. 
Tags: Nicole Pontzer

Joro Spider Braselton Ga 2014
The Joro Spider 2022

The Museum solicits information and photographs on the Joro Spider (Trichonephila clavata). Please send emails with photographs and locality information to this address--   ugajoro@gmail.com.  The museum is curating the hundreds of records sent to us since we published the initial discovery article in 2015.   The Joro Spider is now a commonly seen large spider across northeast Georgia. We suggest that the Joro has been…
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