Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates

10/28/2022

04/22/2022

This week Rohwer et al published a perspective in PLOS Biology about the decline of specimens being depositing in Natural History Collections.

The growth of natural history collections is declining. We need to reverse this decline to effectively facilitate the discovery of new knowledge and inform future societies about their past.

10/28/2021

Using materials and techniques originally developed for falconry, we were recently able to repair the broken uppertail coverts on this male Resplendent Quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno). The process of repairing broken feathers is called imping and is commonly done by rehabilitators and other bird caretakers to restore flight capabilities for birds with damaged wing and tail feathers.

Not only is the museum collection important for research, but it is used for teaching as well, so it's wonderful to have this quetzal looking resplendent once again. This specimen does not have much information associated with it, but we know it is at least 114 years old!

09/16/2019

New research on our understanding the evolutionary history of thh electric eel is out. Led by David de Santana at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and in collaboration with Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates Ichthyology Curator Casey Dillman along with the help of many others we describe unrecognized species diversity and a seriously strong bioelectric generator.

A single species of electric eel, Electrophorus electricus, has been described. Here, de Santana et al. show that there are three major lineages of Electrophorus distributed across Greater Amazonia and describe two new species, one with a much stronger electric discharge than was previously known.

09/29/2018

An editorial by Kelly Zamudio and collaborators on the Museu Nacional fire earlier this month.

![Figure][1] Increased science funding might have prevented the devastating fire at Brazil's National Museum. PHOTO: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES On 2 September, the world watched in horror as Brazil's National Museum, housing a vast collection of more than 20 million biodiversity and cultur...

05/29/2018

The Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, including Casey Dillman William Bemis Amy McCune and David Winkler, is one of 18 institutions participaing in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-Funded oVert (Open Exploration of Vertebrate Diversity in 3D) grant. This video highlights one of the many uses of Computed Tomography (CT) scans in natural history collections. This is a second video in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology multimedia group.

05/23/2018

The Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates has a new webpage! Many thanks to Christine Bogdanowicz for helping make this happen!
If you are interested you can check it out @: http://cumv.cornell.edu/

05/11/2018

Natural History Collections house untold stories and a wealth of irreplaceable information. Here we explore the process of clearing and staining and look not only at the information it provides but the beauty that results from the process.

02/16/2018

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sketching-night-at-the-museum-tickets-43197232084

This event is open to artists of all skill levels, from complete beginners to seasoned experts. Admission is free, but limited to the first 25 people that RSVP. The Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates is pulling a diversity of bird, fish, reptile and mammal specimens for an evening of specimen-...

02/15/2018

CUMV secures an important specimen! Saving a record of biodiversity is our mission. These specimens hold information from the past and present, but more importantly they contain information we do not even imagine will be useful in the future!

The Cornell Museum of Vertebrates now has three California condor specimens in its collection, thanks to a donation by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

11/28/2017

https://undark.org/article/natural-history-comeback-campus/

They aren't "sexy, high-tech science," but fields like entomology and ornithology are gaining ground at places like Harvard and Berkeley, Don Lyman writes.