By Tim McSweeny and Dan Brooks, Ph.D. Last year Houston was devastated by Hurricane Harvey, with flooding covering streets, bayous and communities throughout Houston after the storm deposited about three feet of rain. One of the many parts of the city affected by the storm was the colony of Free-tailed bats living under the […]
Most people call them starfish, a more accurate name to call them would be sea stars, but personally I prefer to call them terrifying reminders of my own mortality. My own personal prejudices aside, the reason “starfish” isn’t an accurate term is because they aren’t fish. They’re echinoderms, a group of marine animals that existed […]
It’s October, time to take our yearly dose of fright around the campfire and let out all our heathenish mischief before we have to act like angels during the holidays, right? Yes, we need October. But honestly it’s not because we’re all evil. The fact is that scaring the whits out of our friends and […]
Image courtesy of Pixabay Yesterday was National Puppy Day, and here at HMNS, we love our dogs. Even though our furry friends can’t accompany us to work (too many distracting bones in the Paleontology Hall), HMNS employees love to talk about our dogs. We even held a Museum-wide pet costume contest for Take Your Dog […]
At the risk of regurgitating clichés, here at HMNS we’ve noticed that something is in the air. No—it’s not the oscillating Houston humidity or the smell of preservation chemicals; it’s the love of Valentine’s Day! Love it, hate it, or just plain ignore it—Valentine’s Day is a day when people can acknowledge their love for […]
A Fressssssh Start To The New Year! This year many people will be rummaging through their closets, discarding old clothing in exchange for a fresh, new look. Our snakes have done sort of the same thing, as many of them have recently shed! This delicate, dermatological discard still retains the pattern of the animal it […]
By Nancy Greig, Director Emeritus, Cockrell Butterfly Center As I was leaving the museum around 9 p.m. last week, after the fun “Evenings with the Owls” event at the Butterfly Center, my attention was piqued by an unfamiliar sound. It was a sort of double cheep, with the accent on the second cheep – I did […]
Dan Brooks, Ph.D. HMNS Curator of Vertebrate Zoology The Frensley/Graham Hall of African Wildlife, built 2002-04 was a new variation of a common traditional theme at HMNS, in that we wanted to portray more than just the Serengeti ecosystem. Prior versions of the hall focused on the Serengeti, which while a very important […]
The other day I was on one of my three-mile walks, fighting off those extra pounds that come with my new, sedentary office job. The sun was coming down earlier than I expected, an unwelcome consequence of changing seasons, and I found that the pretty tree-lined lane I live on had become a particularly dark […]
The chrysalis can be considered the most mysterious stage in the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Chrysalises are the pupal form of the butterfly that follows directly after the larval (caterpillar) stage. Chrysalises are often mistakenly referred to as “cocoons.” Cocoons are actually the silk casing that some moths (and a few other insects) construct around their naked […]
