Great-tailed grackle, male. (Photo: Becky Matsubara)
If you pair the words “Austin” and “bird,” you get “grackle.” But these rambunctious omnipresent birds have an expanding breeding range, and have been around long before Texas was even a state. Austin, for better or for worse, cannot really claim them as our own.
Grackle is... 
Fall is here in Central Texas, announcing its arrival through color. This time of seasonal change is a particularly vibrant time at Brackenridge Field Lab. Splashes of vivid yellow and red appear when Flame Sumac, Spanish Oak and Cedar Elm trees prepare to shed their leaves. But why do trees do this?
These new hues arise as trees begin breaki... 
A promotional video the College of Natural Science completed about the Insects Unlocked project recently won a Lone Star emmy. The Lone Star EMMY Chapter is chartered by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and recognizes excellence in the television broadcasting industry.
Insects Unlocked is a public domain project from the Biod... 
You might have seen them. Pink or dry grey spheres hanging on a branch of a live oak tree. Curious, you might have picked at the thing, thought it was just some strange tree growth, then tossed it aside. But this little sphere is the larval stage home to an insect that has an amazing and complex life cycle: the Oak Gall Wasp, or Disholcas... 
by Adam Cohen, Melissa Casarez, and Ryan Rash
Figure adapted from Dennis Rose's thesis showing the major streams in the Little River Basin.
Staff from the Biodiversity Center’s fish collection (home of the Fishes of Texas Project) recently teamed up with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s River Studies Program (TPWD) &n... 
Click on image to play video.
Biodiversity Collections, specifically the Entomology Collection team, are collaborating with researchers from UT's Brackenridge Field Laboratory, University of Georgia, and more to produce a series of SciComm videos that aim to expose people to the decades of research that have gone into what we know about o... 
Peregrine Falcons are one of the most widely-distributed species in the world, found on every continent with the exception of Antarctica. With autumn in swing, some Peregrine Falcons are migrating to their wintering areas.
There are three subspecies of Peregrine Falcons within North America. Found in the Arctic tundra is Falco peregrinus tundrius. ... 
Stacks of thin wood display cases fill an overflow room in the Biodiversity Center’s Entomology Collection. The cases contain 10,000 specimens of butterflies gathered from all over the world, starting in the 1970s. They are the Robb butterfly collection UT acquired in the winter of 2017, now being reorganized and queued for incorporation ... 
Herbarium specimen of Sarracenia alata, a species of pitcher plant also known as yellow trumpets. This unusual species grows in nutrient poor, acidic wetlands from eastern Texas through the Gulf Coastal Plain to westernmost Florida.
Natural history museums and other biodiversity collections hold millions of historically and scie... 
Fox squirrel vs. mesquite: this one is girdling a mesquite for lunch. (Photo: Dr. Larry Gilbert)
The fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) has made quite a comfortable existence for itself on the UT Austin campus. In trees, bushes, trashcans, or coming to beg for a bite of your lunch, it’s hard to miss these furry little mammals.
Commonly ... 
Tim Gallagher stands amongst his completed pits at Stengl.
In a clearing on the north side of Stengl Lost Pines Biological Field Station lie twelve wood frames. At first glance, these seem to be small garden plots where plugs of the Texas State Grass, sideoats gramma, are prospering. But beneath these frames are pits that form an ... 
(CLICK ON PHOTO FOR VIDEO) Pulling eels out of a bucket of ice water demonstrates how difficult eels are to hold and not to mention their ability to produce copious slime.
The Biodiversity Center’s Ichthyology Collection is working with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to document and study American Eels in Texas with the primary aim be... 
This article first appeared in the History Project for the Department of Integrative Biology on March 13, 2017
Lundell Herbarium 1964 specimen of Hibiscus lasiocarpus Cav.
Few landmarks on the UT campus are as iconic as the Tower, visible to thousands daily as part of the Austin skyscape. Yet, not many people realize that eight... 
Maculra pomifera (Photo: Larry Gilbert)
by Dr. Larry Gilbert, (Professor, Department of Integrative Biology)
One of the few trees of the original forest on UT’s main campus is a huge Maclura pomifera, also known as “Osage orange” or “horse apple.” A male tree of this species grows in front of Welch Hall. Other members of the family ... 
