Dear Museum Supporter,
The University of Kansas is kicking off the fall season with its annual Family Weekend, which means we’ll be welcoming hundreds of Jayhawk families back to campus and the KU Natural History Museum from October 1-3! To celebrate, our Visitor Experience team is offering special 30-minute highlight tours every hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, TODAY on Friday, Oct. 2. These tours are a great way to see some of our most beloved exhibits and specimens while learning something new along the way.
Not registered for Family Weekend? No problem! Later this month, we’re partnering with our friends at the Spencer Museum of Art for Backyard Bash on Sunday, Oct. 11, from 1 to 4 p.m. Part exhibition and part festival, Backyard Bash celebrates the interplay of nature, culture and community in Marvin Grove. The KU Natural History Museum will be making a big splash at the event with a hands-on opportunity to practice gyotaku, a traditional Japanese art form that uses fish to create prints.
Looking forward to seeing you at the museum this month!
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Sincerely,
Natalie Vondrak
Communications Coordinator
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National Fossil Day:
Gallery Activity
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Oct. 14 | 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
KU Natural History Museum
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Stop by the museum on National Fossil Day! Ask for a gallery guide at the Visitor Services desk, then embark on an adventure through our Fossil Hall. This self-guided activity is fun for visitors of all ages! Read the full event description »
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| Oct. 16 | 1:00 & 2:00 p.m.
KU Natural History Museum
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Join us for a guided tour of the Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum and discover ways undergraduate students can contribute to projects in collection management, biodiversity research, fieldwork, and education. Register for Crimson and Blue Day »
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K-POP: Creatures of the Night
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Oct. 18 | 1:30-3:30 p.m
KU Natural History Museum
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Learn about how nocturnal animals explore the night with the Kansas Postdoctoral Outreach Project during this month’s family-friendly, drop-in style event. Read the full event description »
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Curating Collections: Herpetology
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The Biodiversity Institute houses over 11 million biological specimens and 2 million archaeological artifacts from around the world—each with a story just waiting to be shared!
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Holotype of Platymantis habagatan
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PNM 9883, formerly KU 334338
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The KU Herpetology team made an important discovery this month by revisiting the the identity of several terrestrial forest frogs in the genus Platymantis from the southern Philippines. For decades, the name Platymantis dorsalis had been applied to similar looking ground frogs. However, the team combined genetic, morphological, and acoustic evidence from more than three decades of specimens and field observations to discover that frogs previously described as P. dorsalis actually represent three distinct evolutionary lineages.
One of the species identified in the study was recognized as a new species, Platymantis habagatan. It is a cryptic species, meaning it can look quite similar to related frogs but is evolutionarily distinct. Read the full article »
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See a full list of recent publications at the end of this newsletter.
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KU Symbiota leads a new project to mobilize biodiversity collections in Central America
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The project "Increasing Open Biodiversity Information in Central America Through a Network of Digitized Scientific Collections," will sponsor a new Symbiota portal and personalized training for local researchers to mobilize biodiversity information in the region. Postdoctoral researcher Samanta Orellana in the KU Symbiota and Entomology divisions is coordinating the project. Read the full article »
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#KUFieldWorks: Protecting frog species through science communication
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Read the latest #KUFieldWorks article featuring KU Herpetology graduate student Kier Mitchel E. Pitogo. In the Philippines, Kier works with local governments and other stakeholders to conserve frog ecosystems in the Busa Mountain Range in southern Mindanao. His research supports efforts to conserve the region’s remaining forests. Read the full article »
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| Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography
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KU Mammalogy Emeritus Curator Robert Timm was an author on a recent study published in Nature that yielded a new bat phylogeny. The Bat1K project analyzed genomes from 103 bat species representing all 21 living bat families. Combining genomic data with fossils and morphological characteristics, the team reconstructed the bat family tree. The results indicate that bats most likely originated in Europe during the late Paleocene, roughly 55–57 million years ago. Read the full article »
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Biodiversity Bash is a success thanks to students, supporters and staff
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Thanks to supporters like you, the Biodiversity Bash raised more than $50,000 to support future Curatorial Assistant positions for graduate students. These positions are critical to advancing research, maintaining our collections, and providing hands-on training for future museum professionals. We are so grateful to our community for their generosity and commitment to our mission. View video here »
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See the new temporary exhibit: Maggots in the Mouth
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Explore the haunting folklore of Salta Cocote in our temporary exhibit, Maggots in the Mouth, created by Alexa Lee, curatorial assistant in the KU Herpetology Division. The exhibit highlights Alexa's research examining maggots found in the oral cavity of three species of anole lizards from the Dominican Republic. Discover the science behind the Salta Cocote myth but only for a limited time!
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| The museum's main entrance to temporarily close October 19
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Starting October 19, the museum's main entrance will close while construction continues on the deck platform for the new accessible ramp. The Natural History Museum will remain open during construction and visitors can enter through the third-floor entrance. Our Visitor Experience team will be stationed at the third-floor entrance to welcome and assist guests.
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Staff & Student Spotlights
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Stay up-to-date with current activities and events by following us
on your favorite social media channels.
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Paleobotany Curator Kelly Matsunaga delivered an impressive talk at the latest BIO3 seminar on the evolution and development of conifer cones. In 2023, Kelly received a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation that has funded her research on conifers, the largest and longest living organisms on Earth. The project combines several outreach components, including implementing a new course on plant anatomy and a new permanent exhibit in the KU Natural History Museum.
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Cheers to KU BI/NHM graduate students Peter Willadsen and Chase Perkins for presenting at Free State Brewing Co. last month for Science on Tap. Both talked about their time working as Curatorial Assistants and drew a great crowd of supporters.
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Last month, Visitor Experience staff Geneva Izquierdo and Abby Clack tabled at the Spencer Museum of Art during the Graduate Student Welcome Back event, encouraging students to visit the KU Natural History Museum, which is always free for KU students! Did you know we welcome around 5,000 KU students to the museum each year? Thanks to the efforts of our Visitor Experience team, that number continues to grow!
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N. 15 | 1:30-3:30 p.m
KU Natural History Museum
Sharpen your mind with cool rock facts with the Kansas Postdoctoral Outreach Project! Grow your very own crystals, learn how different rocks are formed, create your own fossil, and investigate what makes minerals glow. K-POP programs are drop-in style events that are family-friendly and always fun!
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Austrocedrus from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica and its implications for the early evolution of southern cypresses (Callitroideae, Cupressaceae). American Journal of Botany. (Kelly Pfeiler, Kelly Matsunaga, Brian Atkinson)
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Anatolia (Türkiye) during the late Eocene and the Eocene–Oligocene Transition: successive warming and cooling, aridification, and implications for the westward dispersal of Asian terrestrial mammals. Climates of the Past. (K. Christopher Beard)
- ArctosR: An R package to interface with the Arctos Museum Database API. Biodiversity Informatics. (Harlan R. Williams, Jocelyn P. Colella, Marlon E. Cobos)
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Connecting biodiversity biobanks in the global infrastructure landscape. BioScience. (Andrew Bentley)
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Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography. Nature. (Robert Timm)
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Southern Philippine forest frogs (Anura; Ceratobatrachidae: Platymantis) confused with P. dorsalis: validation and resurrection of P. jagorii (Peters, 1863) and P. laticeps (Taylor, 1920), and description of a new species. Zootaxa. (Kier Pitogo, Krew Hoskins, Faben Tesfazion, Camila Meneses, Hayden Cannon, Christian Supsup, Syrus Decena, Rafe Brown)
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The University of Kansas prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, age, ancestry, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, gender identity, gender expression, and genetic information in the university’s programs and activities. Retaliation is also prohibited by university policy. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies and procedures and is the Title IX Coordinator for all KU and KUMC campuses: Associate Vice Chancellor for the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX, civilrights@ku.edu, Room 1082, Dole Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66045, 785-864-6414, 711 TTY. Reports can be submitted by contacting the Title IX Coordinator as provided herein or online and complaints can be submitted with the Title IX Coordinator or online.
©2026 The University of Kansas
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