Since humans first began using fire, we've wondered why insects seem to have an irresistible attraction to light. Now, scientists say they've figured out why moths loiter at streetlights and incessantly try to enter our well-lit homes. They’re mistaking artificial light for something much bigger and older.

According to the museum’s International Shark Attack File, the number of people bitten by sharks in 2023 was consistent with previous years. Ten of the past year’s unprovoked attacks were fatal, up from five the year before, with a disproportionate number occurring in Australia.

Celebrate your love for life on Earth with our new natural history Valentine’s Day cards

Gourds that pine for their long-lost mastodon partners, crabs who’d rather make an ally than anemone, rodents that settle down with their one true volemate, and more!

Check out these fun science-themed cards and download the free PDF so you can share them with your friends and significant otters! Artwork by Nicholas Bezio.

Fall in love with Florida

While you’re celebrating your love of natural history this Valentine’s Day, don’t forget about the unique plant and animal life in Florida that make this state such a wonderful place to live. The Florida Museum’s Thompson Earth Systems Institute has 10 good reasons to be thankful in the Sunshine State.



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In the news

10 people killed in unprovoked shark attacks last year, report finds – ABC News

Bulky or slender? Megalodon study reignites debate over extinct shark – Washington Post 🔒

‘Jaws’ portrayed sharks as monsters 50 years ago, but it also inspired a generation of shark scientists – The Conversation

'Like moths to a flame'? Here's what's going on with insects and porch lights – NPR

‘A lot of invisible labor’: Reflecting on the Florida Museum of Natural History’s 2023 repatriation progress – WUFT

Meet Gigantophis garstini, an enormous prehistoric snake – How Stuff Works

In PNG, researchers record 9 new species of predatory hermaphroditic land snails – Mongabay

Why insects are attracted to light at night – Scientific American

Research publications

Co-development of a museum-based scientist-teacher partnership – Connected Science Learning

Discovering the ecological secrets of Alsodes cantillanensis (Anura: Alsodidae): Dietary knowledge through computerized microtomography – Gayana

How development and survival combine to determine the thermal sensitivity of insects – PLOS ONE

A Late Miocene occurrence of the extinct salamander Batrachosauroides (Caudata, Batrachosauroididae) and other new caudate fossils from Florida and Georgia, USA – Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History

A retrospective study of a climate change communication train-the-trainer program – Environmental Education Research

Species occurrences of Mio-Pliocene horses (Equidae) from Florida: sampling, ecology, or both? – Paleobiology

Temperature seasonality drives taxonomic and functional homogenization of tropical butterflies – Diversity and Distributions

Support the Museum

Gator Nation Giving Day

The Florida Museum of Natural History houses more than 40 million specimens and artifacts, making it one of the top-three university-based collections in the nation with active research, exhibits and education efforts. Your donation to the museum this Giving Day will help support our students, our dynamic research enterprise and our innovative public programs.

Banner Image: Move over, armadillos. There’s a new bone-plated mammal in town

Until last year, armadillos were thought to be the only living mammals with a protective coat of armor made from bone. Then, a nation-wide effort to CT scan 20,000 museum specimens led to the discovery that a strange group of rodents, called spiny mice, had independently come up with the same trick. But unlike armadillos, spiny mice keep their armor hidden away beneath the skin of their tales, which are uncharacteristically detachable. Tail loss is so common in some spiny mouse species that nearly half the individuals of a given population have been shown to lack them in the wild.

So why bother with the armor? The answer, according to Florida Museum researcher Ed Stanley, has to do with their skin, which is both incredibly fragile and capable of regenerating twice as fast as other rodents. Read more