Biodiversity Blog
Fermented Fantasia
Planet Earth is infested with germs. They coat everything from the surface of our skin to the machines we use, and yes, even the food we eat. Some of these germs can make us sick, some disgust us with their putrid byproducts, while still others poison the very air we breathe. But hiding amidst these tales of illness and foul decomposition is a love...
It's Raining Fish! The Ichthyology Collection Now Holds Rare Fish Rain Specimens
Illustration: Nicole Elmer by Adam Cohen (Collection Manager, Ichthyology Collection), Melissa Casarez (Research Associate/Ichthyologist, Ichthyology Collection), and Dean Hendrickson (Curator, Ichthyology Collection) Animals not capable of flight, such as fish, frogs, and snakes, occasionally fall from the sky. Throughout history such eve...Citizen-Scientists Project at Stengl Lost Pines
L to R: Kathy Cox, Susan Schroeder, Kathy McAleese, Megan Lowery, Nancy Rabensburg, Betty Henley, Carolyn Turman – Displaying newly mounted plant vouchers for the herbarium
By Kathy McAleese
It all started in the fall of 2018. A group of friends were beginning a project to remove invasive and aggressive plants from an old pastur... 
Pets as Invasive Species: Fish Gone Wild
by Nicole Elmer and Adam Cohen, Ichthyology Collection Manager Illustration: Nicole Elmer Pet fish may not purr and curl up in your lap or bark when they see you, but because of their colors, anatomy, and behaviors they can be interesting and beautiful to observe in their aquariums or backyard ponds. But sometimes their owners decide...Through the Herbarium Cabinet: a Student View of the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center
by Sarah Hunter
This summer, through the ongoing haze of the COVID-19 global pandemic, I had the unique opportunity to explore the inner workings of the Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center at UT. The Herbarium Curation Summer Graduate Fellowship program allowed me three months of hands-on training in the varied aspects of herbarium curat... 
Mowing with Purpose: Managing Invasive Grasses at BFL
by Jason Lawson, Field Station Research Engineering/Scientist Associate Susie’s Meadow: a favorite landmark at BFL and one of the areas currently undergoing treatment for invasive grasses. The bucolic image of undulating grass fields in a summer breeze looks and feels uniquely Texan. It seems almost unbelievable that so many grasses t...
Featured Species: Slenderhead Darter (Percina phoxocephala)
by Melissa Casarez and Adam Cohen (Ichthyology Collection) Illustration: Joseph Tomelleri The Slenderhead Darter occurs throughout the Mississippi River basin, and only exists in Texas in tributaries of the Red River. It was first documented in TX in 1994 by UT biologists Laurie Dries and David Hillis in Sanders Creek, a...
Saving Water Damaged Species
by Viv Shu (undergraduate Museum Studies Certificate student and Sustainability major) Living plants need water to survive, but dried museum specimens of plants are exactly the opposite! The Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center houses more than 1,000,000 such herbarium specimens in the Main Building. This 85+ year-old landmark, also known as the...
Linda Escobar 2021 Award Recipients Announced
The Linda Escobar Award was established by family and friends to honor the memory of the late Linda Katherine Albert de Escobar (1940–1993), a botanist, educator, and alumna of the UT Plant Biology program whose research centered on the systematics of the genus Passiflora, the widespread and taxonomically diverse plant genus that includes the culti...
From the FRI Field: Deciphering Differences for Biodiversity
Eleutherodactylus dilatus (Photo: Tom Devitt) The Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at UT gives first-year students the opportunity to initiate and engage in real-world research experience with faculty and graduate students. Several students in the Biodiversity Discovery program this past fall semester have shared their research experienc...Discovering New Groundwater Invertebrates in Central Texas
by Freshman Research Initiative students: Nicholas Hartman, Faith Miles, Antonio Rodriguez
amphipod, Stygobromus sp. (Photo: Tom Devitt)
New species of animals evolve through speciation, a process whereby a lineage diverges into a new species. When these new species are first discovered, they are undescribed, meaning they have not be... 
Nest building isn't just for the birds
by Laurel Treviño, Outreach Coordinator for the Jha lab Have you ever wondered what insect carves out the leaf edges on your garden plants? If the leaves look like this cut-leaf daisy, American beautyberry, or rock rose, you may have leafcutter bees in your garden. Several native bees have made nests in my native pollinator garden this May; I spott...PART 2: Life in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean
By Ryan Rash
Rainbow after a light rain with great frigatebirds and boobies flying overhead.
In my previous post, I compared our life in quarantine now to what I experienced on Johnston Atoll, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where I worked on an invasive species control project through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ... PART 1: Reflections on Isolation from the Middle of the Pacific Ocean
by Ryan Rash
View of Johnston as we were first arriving.
I was a volunteer and then research assistant at the Biodiversity Center’s Ichthyology Collection for a couple years, but moved to the Central Pacific to work and live for 6 months on Johnston Atoll, a one-square-mile island National Wildlife Refuge with a total human pop... Austin’s Other Orange Butterfly: the Gulf Fritillary
by Dr. Alex Wild (Curator of Entomology, Biodiversity Collections) and Nicole Elmer (Biodiversity Center)
Adult Gulf Fritillary (Photo: Alex Wild)
Austin is a butterfly town. About 150 kinds are known to occur in our area, a mix of temperate and tropical, desert and deciduous forest species. Although many people know the famous... Fishes of Texas and Natural Resource Conservation
by Gary P. Garrett, Dean A. Hendrickson, Adam E. Cohen (Ichthyology Collection)
illustrations by Joseph Tomelleri
The University of Texas Biodiversity Center Fish Collection holds over 73,000 jars with more than 1.7 million specimens of 1,785 species. Most (>75%) are from Texas freshwaters, representing 216 counties. However... 
Mis-Stocking Mayhem: The Hunt for Invasive Gobies in the Colorado River Basin
By: Adam Zambie (undergraduate student; College of Natural Sciences; Environmental Science Major and Marine Science Certificate) Naked Goby (Gobiosoma bosc), source: FoTX Project Website, credit: Joseph R. Tomelleri Texas has a long history of non-native fish introductions into its rivers, streams, and lakes. Many are improbable st...Trees of BFL: Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)
by Nicole Elmer and George Yatskievych (Botanist, Curator: Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center)
Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) is a deciduous conifer (cone bearing) in the family Cupressaceae. The genus consists of very distinctive trees. They can get very tall, growing up to 120 feet, with massive, lobed ... FEATURED SPECIES: Rio Grande Cichlid (Herichthys cyanoguttatus)
By Melissa Casarez and Adam Cohen (Ichthyology Collection)
Rio Grande Cichlid (Illustration by Joseph Tomelleri)
The Rio Grande Cichlid, sometimes called the Texas Cichlid, is the only member of the Cichlid family native to Texas, and the United States. Their native range includes most of the Rio Grande draina... 
