Guest blog by Cathy Hou Editor’s note: Cathy interned with Dr. Dan Brooks, HMNS Curator of Vertebrate Zoology. Her hard work culminated with publication of this article on Mute Swans in our beloved Lone Star state: https://www.hmns.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SwanEprint.pdf A Mute Swan swims in the lake, white feathers glistening, recognized by its distinctive S-shaped neck. You may […]
While the title of today’s blog perhaps sounds like the introduction to a bad bar joke, these three things really do share something in common besides ambling into a bar or being on a Cessna short of a parachute. The thing they all share in common is the famous historical Glenwood Cemetery, located in the […]
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 […]
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 […]
In 1972, mammalogist Ralph Wetzel and colleagues were studying armadillo ectoparasites in the Paraguayan Chaco when they came upon a peccary (what we call javelina in Texas) that didn’t look like those already known to science. The result was Catagonus wagneri – the Chacoan peccary, known only from a fossil discovered in 1930 by Argentinian […]
Summer is here and the kids are out of school, so what better time to escape the heat and join us here at HMNS for some cool and educational arthropod experiences! The Cockrell Butterfly Center will be welcoming back a popular summertime program and introducing a couple of new ones which will be sure to […]
Editor’s note: This blog post is a summation of “New Species of Scotophilus (Chiroptera: Vespertiliondae) from Sub-Saharan Africa,” written by HMNS Curator of Vertebrate Zoology Daniel M. Brooks and John W. Bickham, and published as a monograph in the Occasional Papers of the Museum at Texas Tech University. Sub-Saharan Africa is a hotbed of biological diversity. A […]
