Dear subscribers,

Happy September! The BI/NHM community already has much to celebrate this academic year, and we're only two weeks into the fall semester. So far, we have welcomed nine new students who will be helping various divisions conduct research over the next few years as they pursue their master's or doctoral degrees in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. They are a talented group with expertise ranging from Antarctic fossil mosses to parasites to phylogenetics. We wish them the best of luck this fall and anticipate they will make great strides in advancing our mission through their research.

In other exciting news, I am thrilled to announce that in June 2025, the BI/NHM will be hosting the 40th Annual Meeting for the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). SPNHC is an international organization dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and management of natural history collections. Hosting SPNHC in Lawrence, KS, presents a unique opportunity for the BI/NHM to showcase its facilities, exhibits, and world-class collections and to bring a global audience to historic downtown and KU's campus. Stay tuned for more details about this exciting opportunity.

Sincerely, 

Natalie Vondrak
Communications Coordinator 

12 Mile Creek Point [Line Drawing of projectile point recovered from the 12 Mile Creek site (adapted from Williston 1905:338)] (Hill 2006:143)

The Folsom Point is an Ice-Age projectile point that radically changed our understanding of human occupation in the Americas. It was published in 1926 by archaeologists from the Colorado Museum of Natural History and was discovered in 1906. Interestingly, another projectile point associated with 13 Bison antiquus skeletons was recovered in 1895 by KU paleontologists at 12 Mile Creek in western Kansas. Tragically, the artifact was stolen during the late 1800s. If it had remained in the KU collection, then the “Folsom” point would today be known as a “12 Mile Creek” point, and the KU Natural History Museum would have been credited for revolutionizing archaeology in the Western Hemisphere.

Today, the KU Archaeology Division curates over a thousand projectile points across time and space.

Stay up-to-date with current activities and events by following us
on your favorite social media channels.

Paleobotany Curator Brian Atkinson kicked off the first Bio3 Seminar Series this September with a presentation on how preserving Cretaceous plants illuminates the assembly of modern floras. Brian is currently up for promotion and tenure at KU and the entire room was packed with students, faculty, and staff to support him.

Great work, Brian!

KU Mammalogy conducted fieldwork this summer in British Columbia, Canada. Mammalogy Curator Jocelyn Colella, EEB students Ben Wiens and Alex Hey, and postbaccalaureate researcher Bailey Dixon led the first half of the expedition, sampling rodent populations along the Cassiar Highway. 

Last month, KU Herpetology and EEB doctoral candidate Javier Torres Lopez presented at the Bio3 Seminar Series on the patterns of introgression across two lizard hybrid zones in Cuba. He identified how these patterns are consistent with larger stages in the speciation process.