Bloch Lab @UF

Oct. 23 🍺🐛 Bugs, Bones and Brews Spooky season @fmbrewing with our Daniels Lab researchers, vertebrate paleontology collection & the UF Thompson Earth Systems Institute team. Hickory Horned Devil Hazy IPA 🍺 Special brew with jalapeno peppers Event: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/event/bugs-bon…

Gomphothere Spotlight 🐘 Florida Pliocene In addition to the usual pair of upper tusks common in elephants, some gomphotheres (extinct relatives of elephants) had a second set attached to the lower jaw. 🗝️ Check out the exhibit art + key: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blog/…

Museum Resource 🗺️ Vertebrate Fossil Sites of Florida Over 750 different locations in Florida have produced fossils of vertebrate animals. We highlight the stories of some of the more notable sites of paleontological discovery in our state: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-verteb…

Ancient sloths ranged in size from tiny climbers to ground-dwelling giants. Now, researchers report in Science that this body size diversity was largely shaped by sloths’ habitats, and that these animals’ precipitous decline was likely a result of increasing human pressures. scim.ag/4jcJ84M

Congrats Lazaro! 👏👏👏 So proud of our students graduating from @UF this week and grateful they choose to do their grad work with our faculty! Dr. Lazaro Viñola-López, advised by @jibloch, received his doctoral degree through the @UF_CLAS, @UFBiology 👉 floridamuseum.ufl.edu/nhdept/from-th…

A fossil tooth and two vertebrae unearthed in the Dominican Republic have paleontologists rethinking sebecids, giant croclike terrestrial predators, and their story in the Caribbean. Story: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/giant-… Study: doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2…

Athletic, crocodile-like reptiles with bladed teeth made their last stand in the Caribbean as recently as 4.5 million years ago. sciencenews.org/article/crocod…

#FossilFriday Resource 📍 Learn about notable dig sites in our state and some of the vertebrate species from Florida's fossil record. Featured: The Haile 15A site was found in 1964. Specimens include llamas, turtles, and pampatheres. More about site: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/florida-verteb…

During a visit to share their excitement for paleontology and scientific discovery with our Museum members and fossil fans, Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson also took a tour of our collections and came digging at Montbrook with Jon Bloch and Advait Jukar. floridamuseum.ufl.edu/museum-blog/th…

Online Exhibit 💅 Wondrous Creatures Artist Ariel Bowman explores the bridge between art and science with whimsical looks at ancient creatures from natural history. From platybelodon to sivatherium, browse the online exhibit: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/onlin…

Crawling out of history: The Grand Turk tortoise floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/crawli… How did tortoises get to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas? Their story begins at a time of much lower sea levels.

Thank you Maria Vallejo-Pareja, Sarah Steele Cabrera and Domenique Sorresso! 👏👏👏 Announcing our annual graduate student awards, given for significant contributions to the development of museum collections, programs & research. About each recipient: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/florid…

#SciArt Spotlight 🎨 Florida Pliocene Scientific art helps to illustrate Florida's evolving ecosystems, bringing life to the fossils we display in our exhibits. 🗝️ Check out the art + key for gomphotheres, early artiodactyls and more fossils: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/exhibits/blog/…

A new study of the most complete skeleton of a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, Mixodectes pungens, has answered many questions about the enigmatic critter. Story: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/a-62-m… Study: nature.com/articles/s4159…

#ICYMI Fossils in space! 🚀 Fossils of a snail, horse and early ancestor of modern primates from our collections went to space with friend of the Museum Rob Ferl, director of the @UFAstraeus, on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. The trip + the fossils: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/florid…

Fossil collectors in Florida have discovered an ancient sinkhole, now at the bottom of a river, which holds the remains of animals rarely seen in the state, including a type of giant armadillo, giant ground sloths, and an odd-looking tapir. Full story: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/underw…

Dr. Rob Ferl is sending fossils to space with the @FloridaMuseum! 🚀 Studying how microgravity impacts ancient specimens for new insights into space & Earth. #FossilsInSpace #AstraeusSpaceInstitute #UF floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/florid… @UFNews

Fossils in space! 🚀 Friend of the Museum Rob Ferl, director of the @UFAstraeus, recently went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and took a few of our fossils with him—a snail, horse and early ancestor of modern primates. There's more: floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/florid…

Sharing our @UFexplore @FloridaMuseum shark rostral node research for #FossilFriday! This 'small' project with @ManyTinyTeeth, Sam Zbinden, & coauthors has become massive with Sam taking home the @SVP_vertpaleo 2024 Colbert Prize! Fossil node 3D model: tinyurl.com/2p8yknac